I was sitting in a coffee shop doing some writing, but not help listening
to the conversation on the next table. It was between a young foreign
man and his young Chinese-language tutor. They went over the lesson
quickly, and then they began to chat in Chinese. The topic was Liu
Xiang. Although it was rude, I could not help myself from listening
in.

Foreigner: Since Liu Xiang was injured, he should not have shown up at
the track.
Chinese girl: That is because he was carrying the hope of all the Chinese
people.

Foreigner: China has so many medals already. Do they miss one Liu
Xiang's? [Actually, I was wondering about that too, since there have
been more golds than expected already. Even as we miss Liu Xiang's
gold, we also got many more that we did not expect. Isn't that much
more to celebrate about than commiserating over the missing medal from Liu
Xiang?]
Chinese girl: That is because Athletics is a field in which China is weal
and Liu Xiang is the one who tells the world that China can excel in
Athletics. [That answers my question.]

Foreigner: Americans only care about certain sports, such as athletics,
swimming and basketball. They don't care much about the rest.
That is true, because if you watch the American coverage of the Olympics,
you will be seeing those events most of the time.
Chinese girl: The Chinese care about gymnastics, table tennis, diving and so
on. Therefore, Americans are not familiar with the many excellent
Chinese athletes. For example, Li Ning ignited the Olympic cauldron
and he is well-known in China.

Foreigner: Actually, while the Chinese people may be mad about Yao Ming
who is in one of the most famous teams in the world, he is not the most
outstanding player. Instead, Guo Jingjing would be considered an
excellent athlete.
Chinese girl: For the Chinese, Guo Jingjing is obviously excellent.
But Yao Ming is different because he participates in a sport that foreigners
love. For the Chinese, that is the extraordinary part of his
achievement.

Foreigner: I don't understand why the Chinese would have such a huge
reaction to the withdrawal of Liu Xiang from the event.
Chinese girl: Some people did, some people didn't. That was how the
Chinese reacted.

But I don't think that Liu Xiang will be a topic for conversation for too
long. An editor friend reflected that it took three years to digest
the war in Iraq, whereas the snow storms during the spring of this year
seemed many years ago. China is forgetful (or tolerant) with speed and
breadth that are astonishing. He even predicted that nobody would be
interested in discussing Liu Xiang's turning back on the track, because
people will quickly find a new topic of attention.

After Liu hobbled off the track, China’s Internet was filled with
comments that ranged from sympathetic to deeply suspicious, with some people
blaming officials or even his corporate sponsors for staging his exit.

By Monday afternoon, China’s propaganda authorities had issued an order
forbidding the country’s news media from criticizing Liu or probing into the
details of his withdrawal, according to one Chinese journalist. Coverage of
Liu’s situation in the state news media was almost uniformly sympathetic.

Here is an example of a popular Internet forum that has been 'harmonized' inside
China but continues to be available on Chinese-language Internet forums
outside mainland China.

Perhaps this is not the right moment, but as an informed person at the
Nike marketing headquarters in China, I have decided to reveal certain
secrets that may never be made known! Since winning Olympic gold and
especially after setting the world record of 12.88 seconds, there have been
more and more commercial activities for Liu Xiang. Our company, VISA,
Amway and others, commercials, public appearances, the activities never
stop. His coach Sun Haiping was actually quite unhappy and protested
many times to Liu Xiang's financial managers that this was detrimental to
Liu Xiang in terms of keeping fit. But in face of the huge economic
interests, Liu's financial managers did not compromise with an old man who
is only into sports. Thus, everybody saw Liu Xiang attend one after
another commercial activity, starred in one after another advertisement ...
(of course, we at Nike contributed too).

Early in 2008, Liu Xiang's results were a lot worse than in his
championship years and his fitness was worse. Often, he could only fit
some training sessions in between commercial activities and that cannot be
said to be systematic training. At the time, his financial managers
hoped that he could go into secluded intense training during the last three
months before the Olympics and recover his fitness.

But by that time, people had seen the amazing performances of the Cuban
hurdler Dayron Robles. Sun Haiping shook his head in amazement, but he
has no speaking rights within the financial team because he is only a coach.
At that time, Liu Xiang did not object because the financial interests are
too huge. Actually, this is understandable because many Chinese
athletes work so hard for the sake of the huge economic returns after they
become famous. He also believed that he would be able to catch up to
the stellar Robles in the final several months.

But they never expected that the lack of training over the long term had
caused Liu Xiang's body to be unable to satisfy the huge demands of heavy
training. The result was that Liu Xiang was 'accidentally' injured in
the Grand Prix race in the United States. This was actually a huge
blow to Liu and Sun, because it disrupted all the arrangements. There
was no way to cancel on all the contracted commercial activities, and he
could not train while he was injured. So he had to continue to do
advertisements and make public appearances. He did not have time to
recuperate, much less to train.

Here it must be mentioned that Liu Xiang's sponsors have a negative
influence. Foreigners and Chinese alike have very short-term vision.
They have goals that must be accomplished. They know commercial
appearances would directly affect the Olympic performance, but the pressure
on them (including my company) continued with a full schedule.
Actually, we had no choice because the American headquarters has no sympathy
for athletes and they only care about their sales figures. As Chinese,
we may not like it but we had to follow the orders in order to keep our
jobs. Even if we didn't do it, somebody else would.

When the Olympics began, Liu Xiang found out that even though his injury
has healed, his condition was far from good enough to win an Olympic medal.
As sponsor (including Nike which has a bigger stake because we sell sports
accessories), we usually communicate with the sponsored athletes before
important events in order to gauge their predicted result. This will allow
us to determine if we continue our contract. Back then, we signed Liu
Xiang before he won Olympic gold based upon the same policy. When we
learned that Liu Xiang had no chance to win, we informed the American
headquarters and then they woke up. We held a video conference with
Liu Xiang's financial team that day. If Liu Xiang cannot defend his
title (or even win any medal), then his value would definitely shrink and we
would receive no return on the vast sum that we invested in him as
spokesperson. A contract is a contract, and we cannot break it.
Therefore, we can only find a way to minimize the losses for our company.

The first proposal was to reduce Liu Xiang's fees, but it was instantly
rejected by his team. They had signed a contract and they will not
compromise. There was a stalemate over several weeks when neither side
budged. During this period, there was news that Liu Xiang had
recovered. Actually, we knew that was a strategy by Liu's team.
They have many contacts in the media including government people and much of
his income goes to the sports authorities. Therefore, these media
reports are understandable. As a company that has been in China for
many years, we are only too familiar with it. We could not possibly
take it seriously.

The stalemate was broken when a senior manager from the American
headquarters came up with a shocking proposal: Liu Xiang will withdraw under
the pretext of injury. The reasons are: (1) it saves face for Liu
Xiang; (2) as sponsor, we won't incur too much loss since the athlete
withdrew due to an unpredictable injury and people won't resent him.
If he could actually recover and compete again, we will have more things to
hype about.

This proposal was accepted by everybody and we quickly reached a
consensus. Then we began to orchestrate the news that you saw later,
including the pre-race reports, the moment to withdraw, etc ...

Actually, the tears of coach Sun Haiping came from his year. In my
view, he was really sorry that a talented person had to fall to the power of
money and he was helpless to stop it.

Liu Xiang is just one of many stars to fall under the force of money ...
but I hope that he would be the last.

[ESWN Comment: This post is fiction because of internal self-contradictions
as well as conflicts with known external events.]

(The
Statesman) Sponsor denies role in Liu pullout, requests
investigation. August 19, 2008.

Nike today issued a strong denial of Internet
rumours that it forced Chinese athletics hero Liu Xiang to pull out of the
Olympics, adding it had asked authorities to investigate the posting.
“The posting is a malicious rumour, and has not only misled netizens, but also
seriously damages the company's reputation,” Nike, one of Liu's major
sponsors, said in a statement emailed to AFP.
“We have immediately asked relevant government departments to investigate
those that started the rumour.”

[040] Four Persons,
Twenty Years (08/20/2008) ('Blue Sea of Yesterday' at My1510.cn)

He Zhili
The scene is the table tennis auditorium at the Asian Games in
Hiroshima, Japan on the evening of October 13, 1994.
Koyama Chire kept yelling "Yes!" at each point as she defeated the
world's top-ranked player Deng Yaping of China in the final gold medal
match. Afterwards, she wept in joy. Koyama Chire is one of
the Chinese nationals who played for other nations.
Innumerable Chinese people watched this moment. They saw a person
of Chinese descent named He Zhili stood on the podium to watch the
Japanese flag rise to the tune of the Japanese national anthem.
They had mixed feelings.
It was an unforgettable moment, and it was also hard to accept by most
Chinese. People could not cope with the fact that an athlete who
grew up drinking the water from the Huangpo river and was carefully
groomed and trained by Chinese coaches would win a gold medal for
another country at such an important international competition.
"Chinese traitor," "turncoat," "quisling," ... the Chinese people used
language that had been shelved for a long time to curse out Koyama Chire.

Lang Ping
The time is August 15, 2008, and the location is the Beijing Capital
Sports Auditorium.
This fourth round of the Beijing Olympics women's volleyball competition
has just ended. In the battle between the coaches of the Chinese
and American teams, Lang Ping led the American team to a win.
Although the Chinese people should have no problem making the final
eight, they have nevertheless put themselves into a precarious position.
Before the match, the chess grandmaster Ni Weiping criticized Lang Ping
for taking the coaching job with the American team. He suffered a
blowback in public opinion, with some critics pointing out that his
thinking is "30 years behind the times." The majority of the
netizens disagreed with his view. The American team led by Lang
Ping was received with warm cheers of "Coach Lang, we love you!"

Li Ning
At the 1982 World Cup gymnastics competition in Zagreb, Li Ning won 6 of
the 7 gold medals and became a legend in the world history of
gymnastics. He was crowned the Prince of Gymnastics.
At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Li Ning was the leader of the Chinese
gymnastic team which won 3 golds and 6 other medals.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the Chinese gymnastic team was in a
transitional stage. Li Ning wanted to retire but was forced to
participate in spite of a spate of injuries. He made many mistakes
and the team finished in last place
The defeat in Seoul almost ruined Li Ning. China erupted with
rage. On his return to China from Seoul, he could sense the
bone-chilling coldness. The media reported that "One or two
officials and three or four reporters met him at the airport."
People's excessive hope became disappointment, and sympathy turned into
condemnation. Some reports called him "shameless," and they
changed his title to the Dead Son of Gymnastics. Li Ning had
competed for his country in spite of his injuries but all he got was
sarcasms and insults. Someone broke his window in the middle of
the night. He received a rope with a note to hang himself, and he
received a bullet with a note to shoot himself.
At the August 8, 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, Li Ning played
the role of the sun chaser and ignited the Olympic cauldron.
History has given a delayed justice to Li Ning .

Liu Xiang
At the 110m high hurdles final of the Athens Olympics, Liu Xiang crossed
the finish line with a three-meter lead. His time of 12.91 seconds
tied the world record that was created 11 years ago.
At 11pm on August 8, 2008 at the Beijing Olympics, section six of the
110m high hurdles first round heat was being held. The gun went
off and someone went out prematurely. The runners were called
back. Liu Xiang stopped before the first hurdle, then he turned
back and walked with a limp. The spectators were confused and
concerned. Liu Xiang then answered the question himself by tearing
off the lane number on his shorts and walked back slowly to the dressing
room -- he left only a lonely shadow for the 100,000 spectators.
Liu Xiang had withdrawn!
The big screen at the Bird's Nest Stadium showed the scene of Liu Xiang
on the runway repeatedly. Several female volunteers by the runway
were crying quietly. The television hosts could not suppress their
emotions. At that moment, the Bird's Nest Stadium began to play
Beyond's <The Ocean Is Wide, The Skies are Empty> ...
For the next day, the comments at the major websites and forums appeared
to be mostly understanding and sympathetic. Even if there were a
small number of acerbic comments, they were instantly drowned out by
criticisms from other netizens.
Liu Xiang was far more luckier than Li Ning!

1988 - 1994 - 2008

The clock of history has marched for twenty years. From refusing to
accept and even insulting He Zhili, the Chinese are now cheering for Lang
Ping. Even though He Zhili and Lang Ping are different in many
aspects, it still shows that the Chinese people have become more
broad-minded.

During these 20 years, Chinese sports have leapt from sitting back for
individual talents to emerge to using theory and system to nurture athletes.
He Zhili and others could only use their individual talents to become
members of the teams of other nations, and they leave behind only brief
flashes of brilliance like meteors. But Lang Ping was able to imprint
the theory and method of Chinese training onto the soul of the American
volleyball team. At these Olympics, the women's single table tennis
final was a match between China and Singapore, whose coach Liu Guodong is
the brother of the Chinese coach Liu Guoliang. In the men's badminton
final, the Malaysian player's coach is also Chinese. Meanwhile, the
Chinese fencing team is coached by a French coach and they defeated France
to win an Olympic gold medal. The changes in the emergence, opening
and exchange of sports is the epitome of the vast changes in Chinese society
as a whole.

In 1988, the reforms had just began and many things needed to be done.
The Chinese government and the people wanted so much to prove themselves in
the world and gain self-confidence. The Olympic gold medals was one of
the few possible ways. That was why the attitude towards the failure
to win gold was so extreme. It was not just a matter of breadth of
mind, intelligence or maturity.

Today in 2008, Olympic gold medals are still a powerful symbol for the
Chinese people, but they have become rational. Apart from the Olympic
gold medals, there is so much more that can be talked about. It is no
longer necessary to use those tiny gold medals to prop up the pitifully
small self-confidence of China.

Of course, China is a long way from being able "to regard gold medals as
fleeting clouds in the skies." It is a long way to transit from "gold
medal sports" to "people's sports." But from the changes that occurred
over the past twenty years, this should not be too far away. The
Chinese people are far more intelligent than most people think.

The HKU POP polls are sponsored by the media (including Apple Daily, Ming
Pao and SCMP) and the full results are only available at this time through
reports from these media, which includes commentary.

Ming Pao's headline was that the DAB saw surges in poll numbers across the
board: +5.2% in Hong Kong Island; +5.9% in New Territories East; +2.8% in New
Territories West; +2.1% in Kowloon West; +1.7% in Kowloon East, while the
biggest loser was the Liberal Party. The interpretation was that the DAB
has begun its local election campaign efforts to reach out to the voters.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party is suffering by virtue of association with
former housing chief Leung Chin-man who tried to take a
job with a property developer.

Apple Daily's article is about the drop in support for some
pan-democratic candidates. In New Territories West, the Lee Wing-tat
list of the Democratic Party saw its support level dropped to 5.6%, behind
even that of Albert Chan Wai-yip of the League of Social Democrats.
In Kowloon West, Civic Party's Claudia Mo Man-ching had been over 10% in early
August but only has 9.7% or just around 2% higher than Raymond Wong Yuk-man of
the League of Social Democrats.

[ESWN Comment: Please note that the Ming Pao and
Apple Daily numbers are not consistent with each other. The probable
reason is the time period difference. Ming Pao states that the data is
based upon the average over August 10-18, 2008 based upon a large sample.
Apple Daily does not say, and so it can even be a one-day sample (August 19?)
based upon a very small sample.]

(1-555-CONFIDE)
I do not doubt the scientific nature of the HKU POP polls. But the
selective reporting of the polls results by Apple Daily clearly has the flavor
of the 'file drawer' effects (that is, the tendency to report only favorable
scientific results while unfavorable ones are locked away in file drawers).
Each day, they just release the results from one district according to the
wishes of the editors. Let us suppose that they support Claudia Mo Man-ching
of the Civic Party in Kowloon West. Yesterday, she had 14% support and
today she has 7%. They will only report 7% in order to motivate people
to vote for her in the typical "emergency appeal" game used by the Hong Kong
pan-democrats. Thus, science is reduced to become a political tool. ...
I think HKU POP director Robert Chung can see the problem here, but he is
being paid to do his job and money is the highest principle in Hong Kong.

[038] Chinese Netizens
Reacts To David Brooks' "Harmony And The Dream" (08/19/2008) For a
review of the English-language reaction, see CN Review's
The Online Evisceration of David Brooks, A Cautionary Tale. Now
I am sure that it would be more interesting to know what the Chinese people
think. Basically, it is hard to find detect any ripple. But you
cannot say that they are unaware of it altogether, because the essay has been
translated into Chinese and circulated around the Internet forums.

The following are selected netizen comments at the ccthere.com forum (in
North America):

- The whole essay feels alright, but the last sentence ("It’s certainly a
useful ideology for aspiring autocrats") reveals the fox's tail. But
this guy told a key fact: The definition of what is "good" has changed.
The right to define used to belong to America, but now the Chinese want to
seize the right to define.

- Does the writer carry a certain bias? Yes. While he pointed
out the flaws with collectivism, he did not point out that the same flaws in
an individualistic society. Individualism can cause the same kind of
serious consequences. This is no absolute truth in the world.
Thus, there is no perfect social system. It is only a question of
whether something fits the social conditions at the time. Besides,
individualism versus collectivism are just a broad division. Who says
a collectivist society cannot allow individualistic actions, nor an
individualistic society does not have collective behavior?

- I have reservations on two issues. My first issue is that it is
debatable whether the origin of culture should be reduced down to tribalism
and Greek individualism. Chinese culture began in the rich loess
between the two great rivers and existed for a long time as unified empires.
By contrast, the complex geography of Europe caused prolonged periods of
division. This is a more plausible explanation of
individualism/collectivism than bacteria or Greek culture. ... The
second issue is that it is dangerous and mind-numbing to try to reverse
these critical attitudes. It is clear that we live in a world in which
the speech rights as well as moral standards favor "individualistic
culture." It is one thing to be cautions about other people attacking
our culture, it is another to say that we have to lead the world. As
the English comedian John Oliver said: "It used to be England, now it is
America. But don't worry because it will be China in another fifty
years. After that, it will be the end of the world." We have not
reached that point by a long stretch and the main theme is still to stay
humble and maintain a low profile. Even though we have not really risen
up, the Americans are crying aloud about "The China Threat" but not as far
as "strangling China in the cradle." But when we see other people say
that we have "risen up" and "become strong," shouldn't we be less vain and
come back down to earth and walk firmly ahead? I have no other hope
that the west would allow China some time to rise up.

- The following comment (at the New York Times) received the largest
number of recommendations: "A society that is either too individualistic or
too collective will not prevail. As a Chinese-born American, I have seen the
downfall in both. The Chinese have learned to be more individualistic over
the past few decades (and probably want to continue moving in that
direction). Perhaps it is time for the U.S. to put a little more emphasis on
the collective. (And then maybe we can actually get some meaningful
healthcare reform.) Michelle, Princeton NJ."

- China? If the Americans see that they can succeed without
following the path of democracy, what is there left for the Americans?
This is probably what he means. This is not just a competition between
systems, but it is also a competition between methods. Isn't like a
corporate brand pitch? Therefore, the Olympics can be said to be a
good marketing event.

- This is a meaningful essay. This is a thoughtful essay. But
the neutrality of the essay was destroyed by the last sentence ("It’s
certainly a useful ideology for aspiring autocrats")

- Collectivism and individualism are both good; socialism and capitalism
are both good. Which is better? I don't know.

- Collectivism may be high in China, but it is actually weakest in the
collectivist sports such as men's soccer. Sigh ...

- My understanding that the system and the individuals should complement
each other.
Actually, Chinese individuals are not very high in collective spirit, and
therefore the system needs to promote the collectivist spirit.
Actually, American individuals are strong in collective spirit, and
therefore the system needs to promote the individualistic spirit.
I cannot imagine how chaotic the world would be if the the China
over-emphasizes individualism. It will become like many places in
Africa.
Similarly, if America were to carry out the collectivist spirit, the country
would not have much dynamism.
I feel that collectivism is not too strong in China. Rather it is far
from enough. We can see this from the results of the group sports and
from our daily lives.

- A cultural paradox? How can America with its individualism form
armies to fight wars in collectivist ways?

- American armies do not depend on collectivism. America triumphs over weak
nations based upon their absolute superiority in military hardware.

- Without the meeting of American individualism and Japanese
collectivism, there would not be digital cameras, plasma television sets,
laser discs and so on in the world. China is not collectivist, because
it has neither western-style rule of law nor Japanese culture of shame.
It is just a collection of loose sand particles linked by certain interests. The
foreigners are wrong in their views about us. For more than a century,
none of their predictions about China have been realized. China is an
alien species that foreigners can never understand.

- The Chinese people do not follow collectivism. The minimum
requirements for collectivism is discipline and a spontaneous consideration
of the group interests. The Chinese people are lacking on both.
(Japan is truly collectivist relatively speaking.) The Chinese have
the characteristic of "following the crowd." When they go overseas,
they want to join the "mainstream society." Frankly, they adore power
more than rationality. To be kinder, they are super-pragmatic.

[037] Taiwan By The
Numbers (08/19/2008) (Apple
Daily) Former president Chen Shui-bian daughter Chen Hsin-yu threw
a fit over the money laundering case. Are you sympathetic towards her?

45.9%: No sympathy towards her, because she is one of the co-conspirators
38.8%: Sympathy towards her, because she is under a lot of pressure because
her family members are involved in the case
15.3%: Don't know/no opinion

Whether Liu Xiang advanced to the finals or not, he was destined to be
the focus for the media. His surprising withdrawal will definitely
make him the headline subject for most media, especially the web portals.

Actually, before Liu Xiang even began the race, media such as ours were
already making various preparations. For example, I arranged reporters
to interview spectators. There was a plan on what to do if he wins and
another plan if he loses. For the evening program, I had already
invited an expert who provides psychological counseling to athletes with
planned topics. If Liu loses, the guest will tell people how to cope
positively. If he wins, the guest will tell people not to give him too
much pressure in the finals. His withdrawal actually provided more
topics for discussion, including the psychological state of mind of the
athlete, especially the inside story about the psychological counseling that
Liu Xiang is receiving personally.

Many media (especially the Hong Kong media) have been paying a lot of
attention to Liu Xiang in recent days. If there is nothing left to
say, then they would go to the Wangfujiang district sports store for which
Liu is a spokesperson and interview the customers who came for Liu Xiang.
They also covered other brands that Liu Xiang acts as spokesperson for.
Anyway, as long as Liu Xiang is involved, it is news.

In the words of my colleagues, the Bird's Nest stadium exploded when Liu
Xiang withdrew. But at the same time, another Hong Kong colleague at
the scene called me to say that she had tried to find some spectators who
were reacting in a more excited way but she could not find anyone. In
front of the camera, everybody was extraordinarily calm. They were
sorry, but they supported Liu to come back. My colleague was sorry
that she could not find anyone who was crying.

But there was an interesting mass reaction as most of the Chinese
audience exited the stadium in an orderly manner after his withdrawal.
Some people complained: "I bought tickets for the high hurdle finals, but
what I am going to watch now?" They felt that they were short-changed.
It would seem Robles has far less attraction for the Chinese spectators.

Most of the time, the Chinese people (including the Chinese media) do not
realize that their expectations are so high. They all say that Liu
Xiang should not be placed under too much pressure, but the media just
cannot lay off him. Intentionally or unintentionally, his appearance
becomes the moment that gets the most attention and Liu Xiang is defined as
the person in whom the highest expectation is placed. At many press
conferences, the Chinese media would ask athletes from other nations about
their views on Liu Xiang, or else they compared the popularity of other
athletes with Liu Xiang in China. Interestingly, some of the famous
foreign athletes on the podium actually has no idea who Liu Xiang is because
they have different measures of fame. For example, in terms of
international fame, more people around the world are likely to know Yao Ming
than Liu Xiang on account of the popularity of the NBA commercial packaging.

But the media will always say one thing and do something else.
Although some politically correct essays called for people to use an normal
attitude, there will always be other hypes (such as the so-called public
opinion polls or other interactive methods). In the end, this is
something that is simply too appealing to the eyeballs of the Chinese
people. When the Chinese media want to hype something up, they spare
no effort. For example, the American sport shooter Mark Emmons and his
Czech wife probably never imagined that they would be showered with so much
loving attention from the Chinese media.

...

Last evening, I spoke to the expert psychologist. He believes that
Liu Xiang is a relatively psychologically stable athlete. I also
learned that Liu Xiang is studying for a bachelor's degree in psychology.
His previous appearances before the media showed that he is an athlete who
can cope psychologically. Instead, the psychologist said that it is
spectators like us who are far less capable than Liu Xiang. He also
believed that if Liu Xiang had fallen near the finish line, the
disappointment would reach the highest for the people. Therefore,
apart from offering condolences to Liu Xiang, have we reflected about our
own feelings? On the day when Liu Xiang moved into the Olympic
village, the Hong Kong media got him to say that "the competition is just a
game." He was reportedly criticized for being politically incorrect.
But he was telling us a fact, just as he did when he turned around to walk
away from the start line. This is what sports competition is about.
There are heroes in this world, but there are no supermen. And the
hero is not necessarily the person who wins the gold medal.

[035] Hong Kong By The
Numbers (08/19/2008) (Hong Kong Transition Project in
Apple Daily) (1,123 persons interviewed by telephone in June 2008,
of which 714 were registered voters in geographical constituencies and 409 were
registered voters in the functional constituencies).

The respondents were asked to state whether they are satisfied or
dissatisfied with a particular political party. The data is then
reported in the following table as a satisfaction index (= %satisfied -
%dissatisfied). A positive index means more satisfaction than
dissatisfaction, and a negative index means more dissatisfaction than
satisfaction. This study has been conducted annually from 2004 to 2008.

Wang Yuegu, Feng Tianwei and Li Jiawei of Singapore show their silver medals

Table tennis is considered the national sport of China. When it
comes to the Olympics, the Chinese players are expected to sweep the gold
medals (and they could not sweep all the medals because only two entries are
allowed per country and also obviously only one for the team competition).
Last night, China played Singapore in the women's team final, at which
Chairman Hu Jintao was in attendance.

The question was: Was it China playing Singapore? Or was China
playing China? The fact is that the three players from Singapore (Feng
Tianwei, Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu) as well as the coach are all former
Chinese citizens who immigrated to Singapore. Feng Tianwei came from
Heilongjiang province and Li Jiawei was a member of the Beijing city team;
both used to be on the Chinese national team. Wang Yuegu was a star on
the Liaoning provincial team. The Singapore coach Liu Guodong is the
elder brother of the current Chinese national team coach Liu Guoliang.

The Chinese sent out their top players Zhang Yining, Wang Nan and Guo Yue
and they swept to a 3-0 victory.

Why would Chinese players immigrate overseas? Mind you, Chinese
players were also found on other seemingly unlikely national teams such as
Austria. The answer is simple. It is about $$$$$$$. In the
case of Singapore, the reward for winning the gold medal was 1,000,000
Singapore dollars (=USD 700,000+). Furthermore, the mercenaries are
are also second-tier players in China but they become the top dogs overseas.
That is why they were no match when they came up against the top Chinese
players.

Nevertheless, this final was a huge event in Singapore with the highest
television ratings so far in these Olympics. The televised state
address by the Premier was even postponed to make way for this event.

Here are some hypothetical scenarios:

(1) What if Singapore actually beat China in the Olympic final? My
guess is that there would be furious accusations of treason on the Internet.
But since they lost, all is forgiven. In fact, this overseas army serve as ambassadors of
the superiority of the Chinese people in this particular sport. As a
contrast, there were some Chinese Internet criticisms of volleyball legendary
Lang "The Iron Hammer" Ping who coached the American team to a win over China.
Worst yet, Lang Ping wants to be addressed as Jenny and will only give
interviews in English! However, if only the American team had a tough
loss that evening, then Jenny Lang would have been praised for bringing a
lousy American team to being competitive.

(2) Is it alright for a country to offer money to entice athletes from
other countries to immigrate and win medals? There does not seem to be
any outcry against Singapore in this case. But I ask you to imagine the
situation if China were to offer money to entice Kenyans to immigrate and
compete in the 3000m steeplechase, where medals are almost a sure thing.
I can easily imagine the outrage from the usual China-bashers. By the
way, these things do happen (see, for example, the stories of Saif Saaeed Shaheen,
the 2003 and 2005 World Champion in the 3000m steeplechase from Kenya; Rashid Ramzi of
Bahrain who won the 1,500m in the Beijing Olympics; Wilson
Kipketer of Denmark; etc).

In summary, this process is known as globalization (where people can flow across
borders freely to maximize utility). All I can say is: Live with it!
It's going to happen anyway, and it is a good thing for it to be happening.

Reporter: "Guo Jingjing, today is the day with the biggest attendance at
the Aquatic Center. Everybody came here to see watch you ..."
[What is wrong with Wu Minxia? She is Chinese too, and didn't the
audience cheer for her as well? But by this time, Wu Minxia's face was
flushed red and she lowered her head almost ready to cry ...]

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the TVB reporter intercepted Guo Jingjing and Wu
Minxia. First question: "How did you feel when you received the
gold medal from Mr. Timothy Fok, the chairman of the Hong Kong Olympic
Committee?" Why was it necessary to name that person? Because the
tabloid gossip was that Guo Jingjing will retire from diving and marry Mr.
Fok's son. But Guo Jingjing did not cooperate with the need to provide
more material of gossip and simply stated flatly that she was happy. The
television broadcast only showed the back of Timothy Fok, and he treated Guo
Jingjing no differently from the other two medalists. The following
photo comes from
Apple Daily and you can read whatever you want into this.

There was a follow-up question for Guo Jingjing: "You have won four gold
medals -- two in Athens and two in Beijing. Which one was the most
satisfying for you?" Guo Jingjing turned and looked at Wu Minxia,
as if to wonder how dumb can this be? But she answered politely: "They
were all satisfying."

[031] The Battle Of
Taipei -- Preview Show (08/18/2008) President Chen Shui-bian
admitted last week that his son and daughter-in-law held overseas bank accounts
on his behalf. Conveniently, the son (Chen Chih-chung) and
daughter-in-law (Huang Jui-ching) had just left Taiwan with their daughter for
the United States just days before that famous press conference. The world
is demanding that the son and daughter-in-law return to Taiwan to face the
investigators/prosecutor. The mother of the daughter-in-law is Wu Lee-hua
has just returned from the United States with the granddaughter. The press
was waiting, but Wu Lee Hua was well-prepared.

Chen Chih-chung's mother Wu Lee-hua and granddaughter rerurned to Taiwan
early in the morning. As soon as she entered, seven or eight men
created a human wall around her to make way. They screamed at the
press to make way. They cried out to the airport authority security
officers: "Are you with the Airport Police? Clear a path, clear a
path." Meanwhile they continued to scream at the press. Their
hands were not idle as a man with sunglasses in an orange shirt kept pushing
the cameras away.

Wu Lee-hua: "Excuse us, excuse us." The press peppered her with
questions: "Who are these people who are pushing the cameras away? Who
are they? Who is this person pushing away the cameras? Have you
hooked up with gangsters? Did you hire gangsters to protect you?"
She replied: "No, they are all neighbors!"

Where do these neighbors get all that strength? The man in the
orange shirt gave a camera a strong shove right in front of the car, and the
lens on the viewer was splintered. That camera was almost totalled.
Furthermore, the beige trousers of one reporter was covered with footprints
created by Wu Lee-hua's neighbors. This reporter has filed a complaint
with the Airport Authority police.

Chen Chih-chung and Huang Jui-ching are staying in the United States.
The press is only doing its duty by asking Wu Lee-hua for clarification.
But they were manhandled. If Chen Chih-chung and Huang Jui-ching have
nothing to hide, why can't they come back to tell the truth? Why did
they send the grandmother and the infant girl up to the frontline? Wu
Lee-hua said that she came back first with the infant because the parents
were concerned that the media might scare her.

This is just the pre-game show. Wu Lee-hua says that Chen
Chih-chung and Huang Jui-ching will return to Taiwan next week.

Yesterday, the media reported that Lin Miaoke (who 'sang' the <Ode to the
Motherland> on the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony) will star in the new
movie <Strive>. This movie is adapted from the novel of the same name
by Zhang Yiyi. Lin Miaoke will play the role of the 'flower girl.'
For that 3 minute appearance, she will receive 600,000 RMB (or 200,000 RMB
per minute).

Yesterday, Beijing News contacted Lin Miaoke's father Lin Hui by
telephone. Concerning this movie, Lin Hui said that he does not know
who Zhang Yiyi is and he has never made any such contact. Lin had found
out about the person known as Zhang Yiyi only after the Internet hype.
As the father of Lin Miaoke, he knows that he has never received any movie
contract for her, and he is definitely unaware of any 200,000 RMB per minute
rate. He said that not everything on the Internet is credible.

Will his daughter play in movies? Lin Hui said that this has not
come to pass yet, and he has not given this any consideration.

Concerning the recent attention paid to Lin Miaoke by the traditional
media and the Internet, Lin Hui said: "I never thought it would come to
this. He said that while the parents understood why the netizens paid
so much attention and concern for Lin Miaoke. In order to make sure
that the daughter would not be affected by the outside world, the parents
have treated the Internet buzz coolly: "I hope that the Internet opinion
will become rational gradually in time."

[ESWN Comment: What is the oblique reference to Internet opinion not being
rational? When the forest is big, there are all kinds of birds,
including very malicious ones. For example, someone stated that Lin
Miaoke had to observe the 'unwritten rules' of showbiz in order to win the
role, and that means offering sexual favors to the decision-makers. Why
is the father going to do? Sue the netizen using an alias?]

With former president Chen Shui-bian, his wife Wu Shu-jen, his son Chen
Chih-chung, along with the brother-in-law, daughter-in-law and her father
being embroiled in a money laundering scandal, it would seem that the
daugher Chen Hsing-yu is the only one spared. This morning, Chen
Hsing-yu roared at the press again.

Chen: "My dad tells me to say nothing. My dad forbids me to name
those people who took the money."
Reporter: "Your mom says that this was a family affair. Did she get
you to open a dummy account?"
Chen: I don't want to talk about this."
Reporter: "Hsing-yu, who are you calling now?"
Chen: "I'm going to tell my mom that I will speak out."

Chen: "Let me tell you, when elections come around, which of those
Democratic Progressive Party people does not need money? Which
election has my father failed to contribute? Nobody asked them to run
for election. You can investigate them one by one. The surplus
campaign funds are the result of an unreasonable system. Why don't you
investigate just who files the surplus campaign funds properly?"

Reporter: "Your mother said that this is investing the money that your
dad earned?"
Chen: "Not everything that the media reports is true. You should not
take another inaccurate media report to question me. Why do some media
report it this way, but other media report it some other day. I only
know that the surplus campaign funds were deposited overseas."
Reporter: "Why not deposit it in Taiwan? Why overseas?"
Chen: "Is it legal to deposit it in Taiwan? Do you think that the KMT
people deposit their money in Taiwan or overseas? Do you know where
they deposit their money?"

Reporter: "Why not use the name of President Chen or your mother?
Why use the names of the son and daughter-in-law?"
Chen: "Is that so? You ask those other people whether they used other
people to open accounts too."
Reporter: "Did they ask you that they want to use your name to open bank
accounts?"
Chen: "I don't know. They didn't ask me! I only learned that
when I read the news. I never thought that it was my money. If I
have so much money, I wouldn't need to go to work. I could just stay
home and lie down. What do I need to work so hard!"

Reporter: "But how Chih-chung and Jui-ching have violeted the Swiss laws
..."
Chen: "I know. This is a political struggle. They want to ruin
our entire family. Before I die, I will name all those people. I
will not die so easily. It is no big deal to die anyway. The
Democratic Progressive Party people took money from my dad for their
elections. Did they report it accurately? They put the money in
their pockets and did they accurately report the surplus? My father
gave them money. Did they file on the campaign fund reports that Chen
Shui-bian gave them money? Isn't that hiding the information and
reporting inaccurately?"

This morning, an emotional Chen Hsing-yu told the press that the money
were surplus election campaign funds. Doesn't the DPP need money for
elections? Doesn't Taiwan independence need money? The people
who took the money before are now acting as if they are above this. So
she wants to name them even if she dies for it. She named Frank Hsieh,
Su Tseng-chang and Chen Chu. "Didn't they take money?" She said
that this was a political struggle in which people want to ruin their whole
family! She said: "Ma Ying-jeou's popularity rating may go down to
just 1%, but if Chen Shui-bian is dead, he will have no competition."

Yang Wei is the winner of an Olympic gold medal as the all-round male
gymnast. After winning, he was interviewed on television and asked
what he wanted to say to his girlfriend Yang Yun. He said: "I'm
thinking so much about you!"

Yang Yun is a former female gymnast and has an Internet shop. She
won a bronze medal for uneven bars in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

As a result of the exposure, the website traffic has soared to more than
360,000 for this month. But the shop may not be doing too much
business due to the high prices (such as 2,560 RMB for a pair of
sunglasses). Yesterday, the shop was auctioning a pair of shoes that
Yang Wei wore at the 2004 Olympics with the current price at 750 RMB.

In her personal blog, she has often showed off her romantic relationship
with Yang Wei. For example, the entry below is titled: "Yang Wei: I
love you! You are the hero in my heart!" This has led to a
number of netizens leaving obscene comments on her blog.

In turn, Yang Wei wrote in his own personal blog: "I care about how Yang
Yun feel. I admire her. If you want to say anything or if you
don't like something about us, just come at me." I won't delete your
comments." "But if you are going to hurt her, I have going to ignite a
roaring fire so that you can be burned to death!" "Just think about what
happens if it is your family member or beloved person that is being
insulted. How would you feel?" "If you are a passerby, then I
will tell you that your show is over or else you are going to become a
regular visitor at the hospital."

[027] The Olympics
Television Coverage in Hong Kong (08/17/2008) As it well-known,
the precedent to this website is a running website (Central
Park Track Club). So it is natural that when the track & field
events began at the Olympics, I would try to watch as much as possible.
Unfortunately I happen to live in Hong Kong and I have found that I would
probably be better off with the audio turned off. I know that Hong Kong is
a relatively small city in which track & field is an insignificant sport.
But this is only about hiring an 'expert' to comment. Somebody in this
city must know something about track & field events, eh? This 'expert' may
not really understand what is going on, but the person ought to have (1) a
modicum of commonsense and (2) done some studying.

For an example of the lack of commonsense, take the women's marathon this
morning. As the lead group came near a water station, the expert commented
that the 2004 silver medalist Catherine Ndereba is falling behind. What
kind of expert is this? First, this was still within the first half of the
race and she was only a few meters behind. This is not exactly falling
behind. Secondly, anyone who has run or watched a marathon would know that
collisions frequently occur near the water stations when runners fight to reach
for fluid. A veteran marathoner would deem it wise to drop off a few
meters to avoid any accident. As another example, the commentator said
when Romainian runner Constantina Tomescu-Dita emerged from the
tunnel and entered the stadium: "... and now she is sprinting for the finish
line ..." If the person had watched any of the previous Olympic marathons
(and I mean any), he should know that the finish will be at the Olympic stadium
in front of several tens of thousands roaring spectators. When the runner
emerges, it will be at the start of the 100 meter race and the finish will be at
the finish of the 100 meter race. But the entire audience should be able
to see this runner, so the runner will always get a lap around the entire track.
This is sometimes just ceremonial for the winner, but it can be the scene of a
mad excited dash to the finish by two or more runners.

For an example of the lack of preparation, the commentator had no idea how to
pronounce the name Ndereba. No, it is not Ann-Dereba. It is
Ne-dereba. Alternately, you can also call her by her nickname Catherine
the Great. The expert also kept repeating that Great Britain's Paula
Radcliffe was a track runner who turned to the marathon and set the world best
time. No, Paula Radcliffe began as a cross-country runner. The
expert kept referring to Paula's relatively high knee-lift when she ran.
He completely missed out that the most distinguished feature was the bobbing
head, which must be terribly energy-inefficient. The expert also
identified the wrong Ethiopian runner as Gete Wami, who would have made a good
story with Paula Radcliffe because the latter has a reputation of having no
last-lap kick (see
BBC). The commentator was also unaware that Catherine Ndereba is a
veteran shorter distance runner and that the Chinese runner was unlikely to
outkick her down the final straight.

On the first day of the track & field events, it was even more pathetic.
The TV host asked the questions which the expert was supposed to answer.
The races were just preliminary heats to determine who moves on to the next
round. For example, there were five heats in the 100m race. TV host:
Do the fastest runners advance? Expert: (silence). TV host: Do the
top finishers in each heat advance? Expert: (silence). Please
consult the program guide: The top three in each heart, plus the fastest of the
pool get to advance. That was why people were looking around at the finish
line to ensure that they were among the top three while expending as little
energy as possible. It really didn't better who won a heat, just as long
as one advances to the next round.

What about the competition over gold (or total) medals between China and the
United States? I did not sense that there was such a competition, because
it seems that there are three Olympics out there. The first one featured
China and included events such as diving, badminton, table tennis, women's
weightlifting, etc. The second one featured the United States and included
events such as swimming, track & field, basketball, etc. The third one
featured the rest of the world and included events such as equestrian, sailing,
fencing, hockey, handball, etc. Besides, what is this national count
thing? Isn't the point to watch the events and enjoy them as pure sport
achievements?

In Hong Kong, there are two broadcast television companies. TVB carried
Olympic coverage on as many as four HDTV channels, while ATV carried it on as
many as five HDTV channels. But that still didn't mean that I get to watch
everything that I want. I wanted to watch the Women's 3,000m steeplechase
because the Russian athlete was very likely to set a world record, and she did.
But there was too many other events of local interest. For example, I will
bet that the Hong Kong newspaper front pages will be plastered with photos of
diver Guo Jingjing receiving the gold medal from Hong Kong Olympic Committee
chairman Timothy Fok. At around the same time, the Chinese women won the
team table tennis, Lin Dan won the men's badminton, etc.

For diversion, TVB Jade showed the previously recorded debate among the
Legislative Council election candidates for the Kowloon West district. I
am a registered voter in that district, and I plan to vote. The format of
this debate is supposed to be an improvement over previous years, because there
is less opportunity for personal attacks. But boy, oh boy! Do I feel
like I am watching a television game show!!!??? See
here for the live Chinese-language blogging at HK Golden Forum.

[026] How The Money
Was Handled (08/16/2008) Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian
claimed that he had campaign money left over from his four public office
campaigns (twice for Taipei City mayor and twice for President), which he wanted
to use for the 'public interest.'

What is this "public interest" thing? What comes to mind immediately
is that he could have shifted the money to the Democratic Progressive Party
candidates in the county/city, parliament and presidential elections.
The Democratic Progressive Party is well-known to be financially strapped, to
the point of laying off workers and breaking office leases to make ends meet.
But he did not use the money that way. What happened to that money?

The prosecution found that former president Chen Shui-bian's wife Wu
Shu-jen managed the money in a very complicated way. First, she wired
the money to her brother Wu Ching-mao's account at the ABN AMRO bank in
Singapore, from which the money was then transferred to the Standard
Chartered Bank in Singapore, and then transferred to the Credite Suisse
Bank. When her son Chen Chih-chung got married, the money was
transferred to the Credite Suisse account of her daughter-in-law Huang
Jui-ching, from which it was then transferred next to Huang's accounts at
the Merrill Lynch Bank and Credite Suisse Bank in Zurich, Switzerland.

Wu Shu-jen claimed that the money came from four principal sources:
(1) unspent money from the campaign contributions to Chen Shui-bian
(2) earned income by Chen Shui-bian when he worked as a lawyer
(3) the dowry of Wu Shu-jen when she got married
(4) profits from the investments made by Wu Shu-jen

The total amount in the Swiss accounts acknowledged by Chen Shui-bian at
this time is USD 20 million (note: he rejects the USD 30 million figure
reported by the media on the grounds that there was double counting).

During the search of Chen Shui-bian's home and office, Wu Shu-jen was
very cooperative. She answered the questions from the prosecutors from
10:30am to 1:00pm. She emphasized that none of the money was dirty.
But due to her poor health, she took medicine and some biscuits during the
course of the questioning. Meanwhile, former president Chen opened
every drawer in his apartment to let the investigators see, and he hopes to
restore the honor of the Chen family soon.

Is that how you manage your money? How can you even explain any of
this? What happened to the call for people who love Taiwan to keep and
invest their money in Taiwan? Oh, the husband would have wanted to do
that but the wife did something else behind his back ... fine ... but what is
wrong with the wife?

On August 14 at the Water Cube, a foreign television team was
interviewing a foreign athlete. Another observer had a videocamera
running. At that moment, a Chinese woman went to stand by the
interviewee and told t his outside videocamera person: "You film me while I
stand here." The reporter said to her "Excuse me!" to ask to the
interview first. There may have been some physical contact off the
camera. In any case, the Chinese woman said in Chinese: " You touched
me already! .. Which country are you from?" Then she said in English:
"Say sorry!" The reporter was courteous and said, "Sorry!" The
Chinese woman then walked away. When the interview was completed, the
Chinese woman walked up again and asked in English: "Your name!!" Then
she picked up the reporter's identity card to read.

The post is titled: "Human flesh search engine to locate the Water Cube
shrew!"

(Baltimore
Sun) The Beauty of Imperfection. By Kathleen Parker.
August 15, 2008.

Even as China's opening ceremonies for the Olympics inspired awe, there
was something repellent in the exactitude of such mass perfection.

The military precision of 2,008 drummers moving in perfect synchronicity,
pounding out the sound of a billion hearts beating, was both mesmerizing and
slightly creepy.

If they can do that, what else can this giant power do with a limitless
supply of human resources and dedicated discipline?

Inevitably, comparisons have been drawn to the 1936 Olympics in Nazi
Germany. Just as China's selection as host country signaled its emergence as
a global power, Germany's marked that nation's return to the international
community following its defeat in World War I.

Although Adolf Hitler was already busy rounding up Jews, gypsies,
homosexuals and others for detention and/or sterilization, the Games allowed
him to pull a propaganda coup of peaceful tolerance. The Holocaust and World
War II soon followed.

Like Germany, China has aimed to make a good impression. So determined
were the Olympic hosts to project a positive image that officials even
swapped out the adorable child-performer who sang "Ode to the Motherland."

The little girl in the red dress who captured hearts around the globe
wasn't really singing. She mimed.

The real singer was a less-adorable child, by China's judgment. Her
chubby cheeks and crooked teeth made her face "not suitable," officials
said, giving new meaning to the expression "game face."

Thus, Yang Peiyi was replaced by Lin Miaoke. Apparently, the Chinese
hadn't met Paul Potts, the chubby-cheeked, crooked-toothed tenor who became
an overnight sensation when he wowed Britain's Got Talent
judges with his rendering of Puccini's aria Nessun
Dorma. Mr. Potts, now the beneficiary of recording contracts and
millions of fans, has had his teeth fixed, but part of his initial charm was
his ordinary packaging. There was this heavenly voice residing in the human
equivalent of a tract house.

People identified with his imperfections and loved him all the more for his
humility and transcendent performance. He was so ... human.

China isn't burdened by such concerns. Sentimentality doesn't enter into the
totalitarian equation. In such a world, innocence is irrelevant and deceit
is a lesson best learned young. Who cares that a little girl was told she
wasn't pretty enough to be seen by the world, and that her voice - though
lovely - belonged not to her but to the homeland?

That single gesture, relatively small amid the extravaganza, said more about
China than all the fireworks, human kites and dangling dancers. It said: The
human being - the individual - is of no importance. The objectification of
that child, her voice commodified for the purposes of the state, was the
real ode to the motherland.

The absolute uniformity of movement we witnessed, meanwhile, was a vivid
expression of the communist machine and the mandate to honor the whole over
the individual.

A friend impressed by the opening ceremonies joked to me that the U.S.
wouldn't be able to find that many fit individuals to man so many drums.

Although she was sort of kidding - in fact, China has an obesity problem -
she may have been on to something. That degree of robotic perfection is hard
to imagine beyond the military in a country not lately known for rigid
adherence to rules or patient with delayed gratification.

It's easier to command a cohesive performance from people who live under
tyrannical rule than it is, say, in a democratically elected republic where
obsessive-compulsiveness is considered a treatable pathology.

Democracy is messy. And free people understand that being human means being
imperfect, that protest is healthy, that cracks can be stepped on, sins
forgiven - and teeth fixed.

That's not to say that the Chinese performers didn't earn awe and applause.
They were breathtaking. But it is useful to peek behind the thin veil that
separates cooperation from coercion. Those 29 colossal "footprints of fire"
that marched through the city sky began, after all, at Tiananmen Square,
where in 1989 the Chinese government massacred hundreds of students and
activists demonstrating for democratic reform.

Allowing China to host the Olympics may have been a wise decision for
unexpected reasons. At the risk of falling under the spell of the greatest
show so far on Earth, the world was given a glimpse not only of China's
massive power but also of its immense capacity for unfettered resolve.

(China
Times) Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian issued a press
release this afternoon to announce the resignation of himself and his wife Wu
Shu-jen from the Democratic Progressive Party.

He said that the Democratic Progressive Party represents the dreams and
sufferings of many people, but he had to apologize today to his comrades and
supporters. "I have let everybody down. I have disappointed
everybody. I have caused irreparable damage to the Party ... although it
was not my intention, I made a mistake and i did something that I should not
have. I am deeply ashamed and rueful."

Chen said that he loves the Democratic Progressive Party and he was honored
and proud to be a member of the Democratic Progressive Party. In order
to express his deepest apologies to the comrades and supporters of the
Democratic Progressive Party, he announced that he was resigning effective
immediately from the Democratic Progressive Party. His wife Wu Shu-jen
is also resigneing from the party effective immediately.

(China
Times) Concerning the investigation of money laundering by Swiss
authorities, the request for help had come from the Swiss prosecutors in early
July, but the document did not get delivered to the Justice Department until
July 31. Last week, the Taiwan prosecutor summoned Chen Shui-bian for an
interrogation about the state affairs funds case this Tuesday. That case
involved possible graft to the amount of NT$14.8 million. But last
Saturday (August 9), Chen Shui-bian's son Chen Chih-chung and wife Huang
Jui-ching left Taiwan for the United States. That was before the story
broke yesterday that Huang Jui-ching is suspected by the Swiss authorities of
laundering USD 30 million. The possibility cannot be precluded that the
couple had been tipped off about the upcoming investigation and fled.
The couple are considered to be important witnesses in the state affairs fund
case, but they cannot be barred from exiting Taiwan because they are not
suspects.

(TVBS) KMT legislator Hung Hsiu-chu
said that Chen Shui-bian was a coward for hiding behind his wife's back.
Concerning the matter of the leftover campaign funds being wired to overseas
banks accounts, Chen claimed that his wife Wu Shu-jen handled that and he was
unaware of what was going on. When asked how much money was involved, he
said that she cannot remember.

In February this year, the Korean number one national treasure Sungnye
Gate was destroyed by fire. While the Koreans mourned, some Chinese
netizens poured scone. "There is no need to scold them because, after
all, they are residents of the Chinese province of Korea," "Seoul is the
capital of the Chinese province of Korea," "No need to to curse out Korea
because they don't have much that can be characterized as national treasure,
especially since Sungnye Gate is gone."

More recently, Korea and its people have become ping-pong balls that can
be played in the Chinese-language Internet websites around the world.
"The Koreans say that Confucius, Laozi and the Buddha are Korean; they even
built the Great Wall; the Chinese beauty Xishi is now Korean too; the
Koreans are a shameless people who expropriate Chinese history ..."

A while ago, <New Express> (of Guangzhou, China), United Daily News and
China Times (of Taiwan) and other newspaper reported: "Korea has called Sun
Yat-sen a Korean." The media then said that the Koreans are a
shameless people who steal other nations' historical figures.

Why do the Chinese media want to report fake news such as "Koreans steal
Chinese history" and the like? Although it is hard to say in a simple
way, the reason can be attributed to the desire to promote Chinese
self-respect and a sense of historical superiority.

So what should Korea do? It would be naive to assume these sort of
insults against Korea would disappear on their own over time. Let us
take a look at how the "progeny of Sun Yat-sen" story got propagated.
The first to report this piece of fake news was a mainstream media outlet in
Taiwan. After it appeared on the morning of July 31, Yahoo carried it
and then Sky News, Sina.com and other mainstream broadcast and satellite
television channels soon followed. This news spread from the online website
of a newspaper to the web portals and satellite television channels in a
very short time. We can see that a communication system is in
existence to distribute distorted or fake reports to the 1.5 billion Chinese
people around the world.

It is wrong for the Chinese Internet to attack Korea, which cannot afford
to sit back because they can become the butt of international jokes.
Koreans should try to figure why "the Koreans are the people that the
Chinese detest most" and "the television drama that the Chinese hate most is
<Jewel of the Palace.' Then they can react purposefully. Even
now, Koreans should be using the Internet to improve the image of their
country.

Here are some examples of Chinese Internet 'attacks' against Korea.

(1) (PC Home)
Here is a purported table of Olympic medals as published at a Korean website.
Korea is listed at the top and China , Japan in second place and China
is only in fourth place, even though the latter has the most number of gold
medals.

(2) (Tiexue Net)
Photos of a female Olympic swimmer were purportedly published by a Korean
newspaper.

(3) (Tianya
Forum) The post is titled: "The Koreans have posted a video
showing many Chinese spectators booing the Korean athlete on YouTube!"
The post asks, "Why can we do!" Replies include: "Post information about
Koreans booing Chinese athletes," "YouTube has become the home for foreign
unemployed people, otakus, wheelers, Tibet splittists ... nobody goes
there," "Next time the kimchees compete, we'll boo even louder! ..." The
YouTube video which was taken from Korean television has been removed due to a
copyright claim.

Conclusion: If you want to nitpick, you will always find nits to pick ...

(New
York Times) Teeny-Tiny Matter of Age for China’s Gymnasts.
By Juliet Macur. August 9, 2008.

The teeny-tiny women on China’s Olympic gymnastics team will don their
teeny-tiny leotards Sunday to perform big gymnastics in the women’s
qualification at the Beijing Games.

Bela Karolyi, the former coach of gymnastics stars like Nadia Comaneci
and Mary Lou Retton, said their size should raise a red flag.

The smallest of the six competitors is Deng Linlin, 4 feet 6 inches and
68 pounds. The team’s average size is 4-9 and 77 pounds. That is 3 ½ shorter
and nearly 30 pounds lighter than the average for the United States team.
Shawn Johnson, a favorite in the all-around, is the only American gymnast
both shorter than 5 feet (4-9) and lighter than 100 pounds (90).

The ages of the Chinese gymnasts have been a topic of conversation for
months, but it has reached a fever pitch here. To compete in Beijing, the
gymnasts must turn 16 in this Olympic year.

“This is a joke,” Karolyi said last week. “We are people who have had
children of our own, so we know what a 16-year-old should look like. They
should not look like they are 7 and maybe still in diapers.

“What the Chinese are doing is a slap in the face of the whole world, but
there is nothing we can do about it.” Recent reports, including one by The
New York Times, said that three of the six members of the Chinese team might
be younger than the minimum age of 16. Several Chinese sports registries
showed that He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin did not meet that age
requirement.

Chinese authorities have produced passports to prove those gymnasts are
old enough to compete. The international gymnastics federation, known as the
F.I.G., issued a statement Saturday, saying the passports were proof that
the Chinese were playing fair. International Olympic Committee officials
agreed.

“To our understanding, both sides have cleared up this matter,” said
Giselle Davies, an I.O.C. spokeswoman, referring to the F.I.G. and China’s
Olympic committee. “We feel comfortable having heard feedback from people
directly involved with the athletes.”

With respect to the cases of Deng Lingling and Jiang Yuyuan, there is a
2003 documentary film about how China was preparing for the 2008 Olympics.
This 89 minute documentary even includes the then unknown hurdler named Liu
Xiang talking about the impossible to get a medal in international
competition. But what does he know? In 2003, China was already screening young girls for the 2008
Olympics, and the group included Jiang Yuyuan and Deng Lingling (note: He
Kexin is not mentioned here). While birth certificates, passports and newspaper reports can
be faked, it is unlikely that this documentary was faked back then because
the Chinese sports authorities were just guessing who among the large group
will emerge as eventual Olympians five years down the road.

Here are some screen captures:

Training gymnasium of the Chinese national gymnastic team

Must be 16 years old in order to formally participate in international
competitions

* First a google news search with keyword “teeth opening ceremony”, there
are a lot of returns.

* Take out those who picked up from AP (”-AP”).

* Further limit with dates 8/12 to 8/13, when the “crooked teeth” meme
first broke in the English world.

* Now the number of returns is more manageable. Reverse sort by dates.
Look over the first 20 or so pages. The google spiders work pretty hard, and
pieces from major news outlets rarely take more than a few minutes to hit
the google news.

* It credits china.com.cn for the picture. Now use baidu.com instead
since its spiders on Chinese contents are more reliable. The keywords are “site:(china.com.cn)
林妙可 杨沛宜”. The page was removed by china.com.cn. However there was a baidu
cached page:
http://tinyurl.com/62oyun. No mention of crooked teeth and chubby/fat
face.

Conclusion: the meme of “crooked teeth” and “chubby cheek” was started by
Jane Macartney and Ashling O’Connor of The Times (The UK newspaper).

[018] The "Uneven
Teeth" Meme Continues ... (08/14/2008) (Background is provided at Comment#014 and the original radio
interview with Chen Qigang has been magnified to an op-ed column in the grey
lady ...)

The world knows now that the adorable little girl we saw warbling “Ode to
the Motherland” at the Olympics opening ceremony was not really singing. She
was a Potemkin performer. A Trojan tyke. Lin Miaoke, 9, was fronting for
Yang Peiyi, 7, the girl with the best voice but imperfect teeth.

“The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and
expression,” said Chen Qigang, the music director, who went public with the
news that the dual-little-girl strategy was concocted after a member of the
party Politburo intervened at the last minute.

Now this is an Olympic crisis everybody can get into. While your heart
goes out to the athletes suffering the agony of defeat, very few of us can
internalize the trauma. Really, you have to be able to imagine yourself
getting onto the balance beam before you can relate to the pain of falling
off.

But having the whole world know that you’ve been deemed insufficiently
attractive — now there’s Everywoman’s nightmare. When Peiyi told a Chinese
TV station that just being able to sing was an honor, you could imagine her
in 10 years insisting that she didn’t care about going to the school dance
since she was having so much fun sewing carnations onto the homecoming
float.

If she grows up to discover a cure for cancer, when they hand over the
Nobel Prize, will everybody say that it was nice that she found a way to
make up for those unfortunate front teeth?

The idea that appearance is valued more than performance is one of those
painful facts of life that people always hate to be reminded of. But Andrew
Nathan, an expert on Chinese politics and human rights at Columbia, seemed
puzzled by why anybody would be surprised by this kind of switcheroo in a
country where help-wanted ads make it clear that job candidates must be
good-looking and the 380 hostesses to the Olympics were all required to be
the same height and weight.

“This particular technique seems so standard. I’m a little puzzled about
why everybody’s stuck on this example,” he said. “I really don’t know how a
little girl in China might respond to being told your teeth are not good
enough. But doesn’t that happen all the time in Hollywood?”

Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, saw the story
more in terms of consumer fraud. “What she sings is a very moving
nationalistic song,” he said. “The people were so emotionally involved. If
you asked them what’s the most moving episode, I think the majority would
tell you that moment, with the little girl in red clothes. Now the Chinese
people feel they are fooled. The psychological hurt is enormous.”

One could certainly argue that American outrage over Peiyi’s situation is
overkill, given the fact that families here gather together in front of the
TV to watch reality shows in which unattractive people are permitted to
audition for talent contests so that the judges can make fun of them. And in
China, the fact that authorities were trying to put one over on the viewers
was somewhat undercut when Chen, the music director, disclosed the switch in
an interview on Beijing Radio.

“The little girl is a magnificent singer. She doesn’t deserve to be
hidden,” he told AP Television News. How he felt about his moment of candor
once it became an international story is yet to be determined.

Actually, the organizers had started with a completely different little
girl, 10, who was fired at the last minute when the ceremony’s director,
Zhang Yimou, decided she looked too old. We do not want to imagine the
repercussions when this kid hits her 30th birthday.

Miaoke then got the part — until a senior Communist Party member, sitting
in on one of the final rehearsals, announced that her voice “must change.”

It’s not actually clear whether it was the party boss who decided that
while the voice had to change, the cute exterior needed to remain. But
Zhang, a well-known movie director, seemed to start channeling “Singin’ in
the Rain.” Peiyi (whose teacher described her as a well-behaved child who
didn’t like to show off) got the Debbie Reynolds part — the nice girl singer
doing all the work behind the curtain while the star mimed under the
spotlight.

Meanwhile, Miaoke was apparently singing her 9-year-old heart out on
stage under the illusion that the world was hearing her voice. According to
Jim Yardley’s report in The Times, Miaoke’s father said he had to tell her
that everybody was hearing Peiyi instead. “The only thing I care about is
that my daughter will not get hurt by this. She’ll understand when she grows
up,” he added.

You have to wonder. Miaoke may turn out to be the real victim in this
story. It’s one thing to be thrust into the role of Debbie Reynolds. It’s a
lot worse to go overnight from symbol of the Olympics to Ashlee Simpson.

(ESWN Comment: A meme is defined as "a unit of cultural information,
such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by
repeated action from one mind to another." I wish that I can track down
where the meme of the "uneven teeth" began, but my life is too short and there
has to be better things than to nail this down. What is for certain is
that the primary material (in the interview with Chen Qigang) does not support
this. At some point, one reporter wrote it somewhere and others picked
it up. After a few cycles, this becomes a meme. In comment 91 of
The cruelest insults come from ones pretending to speak as the righteous,
VOA was asked and replied that since other western news agencies are reporting
it, they will take it to be true unless proven otherwise. Such being the
case, Yang Peiyi is now and forever associated with "fat/chubby face" and
"uneven/broken/buck teeth" unless she can prove otherwise.)

Q1. How much attention are you paying to the Hong Kong Legislative
Council elections? 3.7%: No attention at all
23.2%: Not a lot of attention
55.6%: Some attention
16.6%: A lot of attention
0.9%: Don't know/hard to say

Q3. Will you be voting in the September Legco elections? 9.0%: No
23.7%: Maybe
63.6%: Definitely
3.7%: Don't know/hard to say

Q4. Which is the most important issue for you when you decide on which
candidate to vote for? (Base: Likely voters)20.6%: Stopping prices from rising
20.5%: Maintaining the economic competitiveness of Hong Kong
13.6%: Shrinking rich-poor gap
7.9%: Improving the conditions of low-income people
6.7%: Raising the quality of education
6.4%: Solving the problem of financing medical care
6.2%: Support double universal suffrage in 2012
4.4%: Legislate minimum wages as soon as possible
3.2%: Ask the government to improve urban planning
2.4%: Ask the government to improve environmental protection
0.2%: Enact the fair competition law
5.7%: Other
2.2%: Don't know/hard to say

Q5. How satisfied are you with the performance of the Legislative
Councilors? (Base: Likely voters) 7.9%: Very dissatisfied
50.5%: Dissatisfied
32.6%: Satisfied
0.4%: Very satisfied
8.6%: Don't know/hard to say

This afternoon, former Republic of China president Chen Shui-bian held a
press conference and said: "At the beginning of this year, my wife Wu
Shu-jen admitted for the first time she had send part of the unspent
contributions overseas without letting me know. She said that she was
anticipating to use the money for other public causes. As soon as I
found out, I decided immediately to transfer the money for Taiwan's
international diplomatic efforts and other public causes."

Earlier this year, Chen Shui-bian was still the president. Today,
he did not explain how much money there was, to whom the money was
transferred to and the purposes that they were used for. He said:
"People say that the state secret fees were being wired overseas, or else
this was the money that I received for the Papua-New Guinea case or the Sino
Swearigen affair. That is not true. I am absolutely clean and
problem-free. I have no financial involvement in any of those cases!"

Chen said: "My conscience tells me that I cannot continue to lie to
myself or others. I have decided to come clean. I have done
things that are inadmissible under the law. I am willing to bow deeply
to apologize for all the inaccurate financial reporting that occurred during
the four elections from mayor to president."

Then he left without answering the questions from the reporters.
His lawyer said that the president could not sit for too long due to his
back injury (caused by being kicked by a pro-blue supported at a court
appearance).

Chen also declared that this was a "joint enterprise" and that other
political figures such as Lee Teng-hui, James Soong, Lien Chan and Ma Ying-jeou
must surely be just as guilty of money-laundering. He welcomes an
investigation of everybody.

Chen Shui-bian's press conference might have been forced by news
developments this week. First of all, Next Weekly magazine reported
that Chen Shui-bian secretly wired NT$300 million to the United States
through his daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching and her family.

Then KMT legislator Hung Hsiu-chu said that Next Weekly got it wrong
because what happened was that the place was Switzerland and the amount was
USD 30 million plus (=NT$900 million). Hung Hsiu-chu has information
about the Switzerland authorities seeking assistance from the Taiwan
government to investigate money laundering by the Chen/Huang family.

According to information, Huang Jui-ching established account numbers
464528 and 464625 in February and March 2007 with the Merrill Lynch Bank in
Switzerland. Two sums totaling USD 21 million and USD 140,000 were
wired into those two accounts from the Credite Suisse Bank of Singapore.
In May 2007, Huang Jui-ching asked Merrill Lynch to register the Bouchon Ltd
company on her behalf in the Cayman Islands. Afterwards, the money in
the two Merrill Lynch accounts were wired into the account of Bouchon Ltd.
In late November, the account of the president's son Chen Chih-chung at the
Coutts Bank (Royal Bank of Scotland) wired USD 10 million to Bouchon Ltd.
These accounts have now been frozen by the Swiss prosecutor for suspicion of
money laundering.

The Democratic Progressive Party states with respect to the press
conference of former president Chen Shui-bian:

1. We affirm the courage of former president Chen Shui-bian in facing up
to this matter.

2. We support and encourage former president Chen Shui-bian to face the
test of the judiciary and society.

3. This is now a judicial matter and should be determined by the
judiciary. We expect the judiciary to handle this case in a fair
manner, respect the rights of the principals and strictly adhere to the duty
to preserve privacy.

4. We feel the sorrows of our supporters over this matter.

[015] Ambush Marketing (08/13/2008) (Zhang
Xiaozhou's blog) The following is purportedly an advertisement
that appeared in a Hong Kong gay magazine.

[014] Western Media Care About The
Children (08/13/2008) (Preface: There is nothing new in this, as it only
reframes the excellent work at the Fool's Mountain blog)

I think that people are familiar with lip-synching and they found it
acceptable. For example, the 70-something-year-old singer was
lip-synching due to illness and weather. After all, this is a show and
there is some leeway for how to define the performance. I only hope
that the responsibility should not be placed on the two children and their
parents. After all, they can't do much about what happens.

The New York Times located the parents of Lin Miaoke. They were
informed only 15 minutes before the start that their daughter would be the
singer, because the child was asked not to disclose the details of the
rehearsal. But the father did not feel that the voice was like that of
his daughter, which he thought may be due to technical reasons. They
only found out after the relevant interview was aired. They told
Miaoke that the voice was not her, but she didn't care. Her parents
said that Miaoke and Peiyi are good friends and there were ten girls
selected to prepare for the singer's role. The parents said that they
don't care who sang, just as long as the children were not the children.

I think that this is the most important part, and it is the reason why
this story got the attention of the western media. This case involves
children and the values of a society is revealed by how children are
treated. I think that there is nothing wrong with two people
collaborating on this program, but the problem is that everybody now knows
the reason: one did not have a good voice and the other was not pretty
enough. For people who advocate encouraging and loving children, this
kind of reason must surely be too cruel.

I had dinner with some foreign correspondents yesterday. They did
not have much to say about the electronic fireworks, and their attention
were on the two children. In the western world, it is unacceptable to
to treat children this way for this reason. This opening ceremony show
was supposed to the perfect performance for the west, especially for those
people who are prejudiced against China. It was not worth it for this
one episode to reinforce those prejudices.

Yes, it is all about protecting the children from being hurt by evil adults ...

On Monday, Peiyi appeared on China Central Television, or CCTV, the state
network. “I’m O.K. with it,” she told her interviewer, even performing a
song. “My voice was used in the performance. I think that’s enough.”
Miaoke’s father, a news photographer at a Chinese newspaper, was worried
about how she would take the news. Since age 6, Miaoke has worked in
television advertisements, even appearing with the country’s wildly popular
hurdling champion, Liu Xiang. Her appearance in the opening ceremonies made
her an instant celebrity in China, and her image was reproduced around the
world.

“Here’s something I want to tell you,” Mr. Lin said he had told his
daughter. “The music director announced just now that it was not your voice
when you were singing at the opening ceremony. The song was actually
performed by you two girls.” Mr. Lin said his daughter was not upset. He
said that Miaoke and Peiyi were “good friends” and that Miaoke “doesn’t care
who sang the song, as long as she performed.”

So far so good, no harm no foul. But the western media went on to
report (and I got these references by searching for the term 'uneven
teeth' on Google News for which I got more than 1,400 results):

(Los
Angeles Times) China's $100-million Olympics opening ceremony
wowed its global TV audience with a lavish spectacle and pizazz that tried
to present a perfect image of China to the world, right down to the perfect
teeth of the little girl who took center-stage and sang an ode to the
motherland.
Except the voice was not hers. It was recorded and belonged to another girl,
with better pipes but crooked baby teeth and a chubby face.

(AFP)
The show's musical director revealed the real singer, seven-year-old Yang
Peiyi who has uneven teeth and a chubby face, was replaced by government
order because she did not present the right image of China. ... No newspaper
reported on the issue on Wednesday and state broadcasters also avoided the
subject. References to the story were blocked or deleted from the Internet.

(Times
Online) The real singer was Yang Peiyi, a seven-year-old
deemed not pretty enough to be the face of China’s most watched moment in
history. Chubby-cheeked with crooked teeth, she was substituted at the
eleventh hour by Communist Party officials desperate to present the best
possible image of Chinese youth to a curious world. After watching a
rehearsal with Peiyi in the lead role, a senior member of the Politburo told
Beijing Olympic organisers that they had an urgent problem that needed
fixing. The solution was to front Peiyi’s “perfect” voice with the more
acceptable face of Miaoke, who had already appeared in a television advert.

(Telegraph)
Now we discover that Lin Miaoke, the little pig-tailed girl in the red dress
who "performed" the Chinese anthem so delightfully at the opening ceremony,
was miming. The real singer, Yang Peiyi, was dropped at the last minute
because of her buck teeth. In a revealing interview, the ceremony's musical
designer said the intervention of a member of the ruling politburo was
instrumental in making the swap.

(Globe
and Mail) The unmasking of the ruse by which China attempted
to pass off one girl's beautiful face as belonging to another girl's
beautiful voice is also the unmasking of the new China, and the propaganda
purposes of the Beijing Olympics. It would not have done to have Lang Peiyi,
the seven-year-old singer of China's patriotic song, Ode to the
Motherland, be seen by the world or her own country during the opening
ceremony of the Games: She has uneven teeth. Those teeth, and her bowl-cut
hair, do not suggest wealth or modernity. Her replacement, nine-year-old Lin
Miaoke, is a pig-tailed, Asian version of one of the Olsen twins at that
age. She is the ideal, the new China.

(National
Post) The pinnacle of deceit, however, came when Chen Qigang,
the music director of the Opening Ceremony, admitted in an interview with
state media that the adorable nine-year-old girl who sang Ode to the
Motherland as China's flag was carried into the main stadium was not, in
fact, singing. Lin Miaoke was chosen because the girl whose voice was used,
Yang Peiyi, had too-crooked teeth and a too-chubby face. As Chen reportedly
put it, "we were concerned with the interests of the nation."

(AP)
So in a last-minute move demanded by one of China's highest officials, the
two were put together for the Olympic opening ceremony, with one
lip-synching "Ode to the Motherland" over the other's singing. The real
singer, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, with her chubby face and crooked baby teeth,
wasn't good looking enough for the ceremony, its chief music director told
state-owned Beijing Radio.

So now we have a situation in which Yang Peiyi is now and forever marked with
having the "chubby/fat face" and "crooked/uneven/buck teeth." That should do
wonders for her self-esteem ... NOT! Did the music director Chen Qigang say
that? He should be crucified for saying so. What did he really say
in that Beijing radio interview? Here is the YouTube video:

Chen Qigang: The director requested first and foremost
adorable kids, and we identified about 10 children accordingly. We then
listened to the singing of those kids, and not all of them had good enough
voice to perform. The request from the director was that, first the
appearance must be good, and of those, the one with the best voice and
ability to sing should be picked. We went through a few such candidates
through the process and they helped our music creation effort
tremendously.

The first kid was about 10 years old. She contributed the most towards
the preparation stage of this part of the performance. All the early
practice runs were based on her recorded singing. But the director felt
she was not the best visual for the scene. She was considered somewhat
older than envisioned, a bit adolescent that is. So regrettably she was
dropped. We then focused on searching through younger kids. The age
criteria was to find someone about 7 years old. A number of them were
selected, including both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi.

We went to the Central Broadcasting Radio Station to make recordings.
It was felt afterward that Lin Miaoke’s voice wasn’t exactly suitable in
terms of tone control, range and depth. In the end, we decided that Yang
Peiyi should be the one to provide the voice. We thought it was in the
national interest to put the one with the best appearance and expression
on the stage. Lin Miaoke was a very good choice for this role. But in
terms of the music, we all felt that Yang Peiyi had the flawless voice.

Interviewer: So the one appearing in front the camera
was Lin Miaoke and the song came from Yang Peiyi?

Chen Qigang: That’s right. It was a last minute, tough
decision. We went through multiple practices and reviews. We played Lin
Miaoke’s recording during one joint practice. Many reviewers, particularly
someone in the Political Bureau of the Central Committee [of the CCP],
made comments that it must be changed. We had no choice.

Interviewer: This is the first time for us to hear
this story.

Chen Qigang: We have a responsibility to explain this
to the Chinese viewers. I think the viewers should be able to understand
that, in the national interest, for the perception of the country, it was
an extremely important and serious matter to present the flag [in the best
possible manner]. We made a decision, which I think was fair to both Lin
and Yang. We felt the coupling of a perfect voice with the best appearance
produced the most optimal result. From Lin Miaoke’s point of view, she
might not even have realized it. We had two recordings from both of them
and they didn’t sound very different.

So where did Chen Qigang talk about the "chubby/fat face" and
"crooked/uneven/buck teeth"? Nowhere. Go back and re-read the western
media reports -- they are the ones who thought that she had those physical
attributes. Lin and Yang were among the final three candidates who were
listed on the programme, and therefore it cannot be the case that they are not
'presentable' or could not sing. But today, the world knows Yang as
having "chubby/fat face" and "crooked/uneven/buck teeth" and Lin as having no
singing talents. Well, who needs Politburo members when we have
western media showering such 'tender loving care' on Chinese children?
DJ's post at Fool's Mountain is titled
The cruelest insults come from ones pretending to speak as the righteous.
Right ...

[013] Olympic Opening
Ceremony Gate (08/13/2008) This is my attempt to extend "Fake
Firework Footprint Gate" and "Fake Singing Gate" to the entire event. Why
not? If you want to nitpick, you can always find some nits to pick!

With respect to "Fake Firework Footprint Gate", I translated the post by
Song Shinan in Chinese Internet Reacts To Olympics Opening Ceremony.
That post was made by the blogger at 2008-8-9 0:50:29, which was near
real-time. What is there about this tv program segment? The words
were 电子烟花造的大脚板 (translation: The big footprints created by electronic
fireworks). He already knew that it was computer animation. I
don't know about you, but I knew that the sequence had to be pre-recorded and/or
animated because it was operationally impossible to carry out in a live
situation. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it while knowing what it is. It
seems that the critics are incapable of enjoying such. That is the
essence of the situation. When it comes to China, many people are
completely incapable of just looking at and enjoying something because they
have many chips on their shoulders and many axes to grind. They don't
know how to lighten up.

With respect to "Fake Singing Gate," the comment below this one points out
to a simple fact. The script called for a young girl to sing <Ode to the
Motherland>. In such an important production, they would never have only
one person and they will always have backups. In fact, there were three
candidates, including Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi. The designated
performer was Lin Miaoke and the other two were backups (as in, What if Lin
Miaoke gets hit by a truck on the way to the Bird's Nest Stadium?). For
whatever reason, the decision was to replace Lin Miaoke's singing with a
pre-recorded version done by Yang Peiyi. It is not even clear that Lin
Miaoke knew this was happening (because she may not be able to tell from the
sound feedback). This is very different from the version out there which
says that Yang Peiyi was rejected because of crooked teeth/fat face.

But that is beside the point. After all, if people want to get
themselves worked up over nothing, that is their prerogative. I am only
here to provide more fodder.

(1) Why was Li Ning chosen to ignite the Olympic cauldron? The
International Olympic Committee requires an Olympian to perform the task.
As designed, the task entails serious training and current Olympians could not
make time. This leaves only retired Olympians. Three distinguished
Chinese Olympians were identified just over a month before the opening
ceremony. The first candidate Xu Haifeng, a shooter who won the first
ever gold medal for China, was unavailable. Li Ning
was the most distinguished gymnast of his era. The third was the diver
Xiong Ni. For his role, Li Ning trained for almost a month. For
reason of secrecy, he showed up at 2am each night after everybody else has
left. The training was done in the dark, because turning on the lights
would have revealed that something was going on. Meanwhile, Xiong Ni
trained just as hard. But he received no credit because he was just the
backup (as in, What if Li Ning gets hit by a truck on the way to the Bird's
Nest Stadium?). The controversial issue was: Was it ambush marketing
against Adidas on behalf of Li Ning's Chinese sports apparel company?
Well, if you want to get all worked up over that, that is your prerogative.
You can name your own candidate (and be promptly ripped apart by others).
For example, you may suggest Gao Min, who was undefeated in her career as a
diver, but she is not going to be able to undertake this physically demanding
task ...

(2) The ignition of the Olympic cauldron was considered longish because Li
Ning had to circle the entire stadium. But at least he lit the cauldron
directly. For the Turin Winter Olympics, "The cauldron lighting was also
the first in recent memory to be lit indirectly, that is, the flame did not
directly touch or travel to (such as the arrow lighting at the 1992 Summer
Olympics) the cauldron itself. The precise timing of the pyrotechnics was
obviously timed by computer from the precise moment the flame touched the center
frame in the center of the stadium. Because of the elaborate fireworks, it is
highly unlikely the flame traveled to all the charges directly. However, it
is possible that the cauldron was lit from a backup flame inside, or that an
electronic signal from Belmondo's apparatus to the cauldron served as the
"flame" (much like the 1976 Summer Olympics where a satellite signal carried
the "flame" from Greece to Canada, though not at the opening ceremony)."
Oh my God, didn't the audience expect to see a real ignition with a real torch by a real person
as opposed to a computerized event? Please go and have a fit ...

By the way, the original Beijing design was for a "phoenix" to perform the
ignition, but the IOC rejected that because they felt that it had to be
personally carried out by an athlete.

(3) Who are the 2,008 persons playing the percussion instruments?
They turned out to be soldiers stationed in the Beijing area. However,
not all soldiers are eligible because there was a physical height requirement
of 170cm. Well, not all Chinese people are exactly this tall. If
you want to have a fit about how misleading this is or about the eugenic
implication of the ideal height of Chinese male, it is your prerogative.

(4) How was the five-ring Olympic symbol raised up? Actually, it was
just a lighting illusion. There was an array consisting of more than
40,000 high-quality LED lights, and it was already suspended in air. The
raising of the rings was therefore a computerized process. If you see
the rings rising, it is only the optical illusion created by some LED lights
being turned on and others being turned off. Oh my God! Doesn't
the Olympic spirit require the Olympic rings to be 'actually' raised?

(5) The Beijing Weather Bureau had a forecast of rain for the Olympic
opening ceremony, but it was actually clear on this night. It turned out that between
4pm and 11pm, 1,104 rockets had been launched from 21 locations around Beijing
and that successfully stopped a belt of heavy rain from entering Beijing.
Oh my God, they are even manipulating the weather? Is nothing sacred?

(6) It was said that the "fake firework footprints" and "fake signing"
would have been acceptable if the spectators were informed beforehand.
Rehearsals had been held separately before. There were full dress
rehearsals on July 16 and August 2 at the Bird's Nest Stadium. Many
media outlets were present for the rehearsals and they knew what was going to
happen. But with the exception of the South Korean television channel
SBS, nobody previewed the opening ceremony. Why? Because surprise
is an important element and the media know the rules of the game. How
would you like a detailed explanation beforehand in the manner of "... at
8:13pm, fireworks will be set off around Beijing but the audience will be
seeing a 3D computer animation of that ... at 8:28pm, the 9-year-old girl Lin
Miaoke will
show up to sing <Ode to the Motherland> but the voice belongs to
7-year-old Yang Peiyi
... at 9:39pm, a female dancer will appear on a carpet carried by men in the
Silk Road episode but she
is just a replacement after the originally scheduled dancer Liu Yan fell and
injured herself seriously during a rehearsal ..." After you read this announcement,
will you bother to watch the
television show itself?

(7) Later on, Li Ning revealed that he had immigrated to Hong Kong under
the special talents program. Therefore, Li Ning was not a mainland
Chinese resident at the time when he ignited Olympic flame. Therefore,
this is a breach of protocol for inviting a non-resident to conduct this last
step. Will the angry young people rise and call Li Ning a Chinese
traitor? Oh, wait, Hong Kong is part of the People's Republic of China
... never mind ...

The above was obtained from this week's issue of EastWeek weekly magazine
(in Hong Kong). I have no intention of working any harder. The
Beijing Olympic opening ceremony was a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle, and I had
seen it personally. It will probably never be matched in my lifetime in
terms of over-the-top extravagance, as there is no reason why London (and
other future host cities) would want to do this kind of thing. However,
I have no interest to take this entertainment show to the level of Chinese
governance, national character, etc. That would be overkill. But
if you want to do so, it is your prerogative. My advice is, "Lighten up,
relax and enjoy the show."

Bonus: (Hecaitou's
blog) As Li Ning 'sky-walked' around the stadium wall which had
images projected upon them, there was one projected image that was the
infamous Microsoft "Blue Screen of Death." Was this a deliberate attempt
to shame Microsoft (whose founder Bill Gates was in attendance)? That
would be so like the evil Chinese!

While the strong visual impact of the Olympic opening ceremony was still
shimmering before our eyes, there came the disclosure that the 29 footprints
in the air were special effects created by computer. While the sound
of the song <Ode to the Motherland> was still swirling inside our heads,
there came the scandal about "fake singing" and "lip synching." ...

...

The infuriating part is what Chen Qigang, who is the music director of
the Olympic opening ceremony, said. He said that the actual singer
Yang Peiyi was kept off "in consideration of the international image" and
"the national interests." This statement is bound to offend anyone and
everyone. Even if Yang's looks might displease the audience or fails
to meet the aesthetic requirements of the director, he should have put it
that way. Anyone who says such words must have water in his brain, and
it would not be an insult to call him 'retarded.'

When this story was exposed, most of people felt sorry for Yang Peiyi.
The photo of Yang in the videos showed that she was quite lovely and not
quite the unpresentable person that director Chen implied. Frankly,
before seeing the photo, I had assumed Yang was physically impaired and I
even pondered on whether it would be better to have such a young handicapped
person on stage instead.

The "fake singing" affair was really somewhat unfair to Yang. If
this story had not been exposed, everyone would assume the heavenly song was
sung by Lin Miaoke, and that would be unfair to Yang. But even though
it is unfair, I disagree that Yang would feel hurt as a result. Why is
that?

The media reported that director Chen also disclosed that Lin Miaoke's
sound was replaced at the last minute as a result of an order from a "member
of the Politburo." ... this tells us one fact: what was replaced at the last
minute was Lin's singing and not Yang's image. In other words, Yang's
singing was inserted at the last minute. For this, Yang should at
least feel proud. In her own words, she "felt satisfied" even though
she did not get her moment on the stage. But she was not hurt when her
singing was used.

What hurt Yang was precisely what director Chen said. Perhaps he
intended well and he wanted to be fair to Yang as well as tell the truth to
the public. But what he said not only hurt the self-respect of Yang,
but also caused pain in other decent people. According to information,
this great musician Chen has spent a long time in France. Could it be
that he lost the Chinese art of speech because he had been speaking foreign
languages for too long?

As for feeling hurt, perhaps Lin Miaoke was hurt even more.

Let us talk first about the switching of the singing. The overall
director in charge Zhang Yimou specifically mentioned Lin at the press
conference after the opening ceremony. He said that he was most
touched by 9-year-old Lin Miaoke singing <Ode to the Motherland>. He
said that Lin had rehearsed many times and put in a lot of work. But
in spite of all that hard work, someone thought in the end that her voice
was not good enough and had it replaced. I think that this is bound to
hurt her feelings somewhat. But let us imagine that if the decision
was to replace her altogether, then how much worse would that hurt be?
Here, I agree with the decision by the directors and leaders to keep her on
stage and still let her stand on the stage, as opposed to sweeping her out
the door. Of course, this is my speculation. Perhaps the real
reason was that there was no one to replace her at the last minute, or
perhaps director Zhang liked her too much, or perhaps director Chen thought
that her image was better suited for the "national interests."

But what director Chen said not only hurt Yang (who did not have to be
hurt) but it also hurt Lin (who was not hurt much before). For Lin,
she now has to bear the bad reputation of "fake singing" at her young age
(even though the decision was not up to her). She is regarded to have
stolen the glory that belonged to another child. Is this a burden that
she can bear at this young age? Should she even be bearing it?

I want to go back and talk about "the fake footprints" and the "fake
singing" together. For a movie director, it is bizarre that these two
things can be called "fakery." Computerized techniques are essential
nowadays for creating audio-visual effects in movies. Movies from <The
Titanic> to Zhang Yimou's own <Hero> would not exist without computerized
special effects. As for "fake singing" and "lip-synching," they are
better known as "dubbing" and "body doubles" in the terminology of movies.
Without the body double, many of the clumsy movie stars would have been dead
while trying. Without the dubbing, those movie stars with pretty faces
but are tone-deaf would have been embarrassed out of their careers. I
am unsure whether these techniques should be used at the Olympic opening
ceremony. People can form their own opinions about that.

The world’s newest insurgency claimed its latest victims yesterday and,
to judge by what local people said, they never knew what had hit them. The
casualties were security guards, little more than members of a neighbourhood
watch, manning a small checkpoint near the oasis city of Kashgar: a simple
barrier across the road, a desk with a log of the passing traffic, and a
tent where their bodies were found in the early morning.

“There were four of them in the tent,” said a man at a similar
checkpoint, a few miles away. “Someone came in during the small hours – they
were killed while they slept.” Knives were the weapons used; one man of the
four survived and lies in hospital in a critical condition. No one knows who
the attackers were, how many there were, or where they are now.

...

Accounts of the attack were still contradictory last night. The state
Xinhua news agency reported that it took place at 9am when a group of men
jumped out of a passing car. The full story may not be known until, or
unless, the survivor of the attack recovers. “He has pulled away from
danger,” a policeman in Yamanya told the Associated Press. “We are now
waiting for him to wake up and speak so we can find out more details about
what happened.”

[010] The Two Pieces
Of Fakery At The Olympic Opening Ceremony (08/13/2008) (Ming
Pao editorial)

[in translation]

The Beijing Olympics opening ceremony was gorgeous and splendid.
More than 4 billion watched it around the world, and they were wowed and
awed. But there are two pieces of fakery in the opening ceremony.
"Fakery" in this grand event is unacceptable no matter what the
considerations, reasons and excuses are, because this is basically against
the Olympic spirit. While China has the economic means to construct
amazing sport facilities, it is still lagging far behind in the accompanying
software. China must correct its approach in order to become a strong
nation that has the respect of people.

The two pieces of "fakery" are the 29 firework footprints and the
mesmerizing song <Ode to the Motherland> sung by a little girl.

First, let us talk about the firework footprints. When the opening
ceremony began, the screen showed an invisible giant walking from Yongding
River in southern Beijing towards the Bird's Nest stadium. The
footprint was realized in the form of fireworks to create the movement over
space and time. The spectators were awed beyond belief. This
opening scene opened their eyes, and the spectators thought that the 29
footprints were formed from actual fireworks that were being filmed from the
air. But the truth was that while there were fireworks at where the
footprints showed up, only the last one was filmed live and the other 28
were 3D computer animations.

The BOCOG information spokesperson Wang Wei confirmed that pre-recorded
footage of fireworks had been used that evening. The mainland
newspaper Beijing News interviewed people who worked on the audio-visual
effects of the opening ceremony, and they said that they began working on
the 3D animation last year and finished in July this year. The workers
said that the there are 29 footprints in the 55-second video and only the
last one when the footprint enters the Bird's Nest was live. The
workers even used the Beijing Weather Bureau's weather report to add haze to
match the weather conditions in Beijing on the night of the opening
ceremony.

First of all, it is understandable that the organizers would want the
opening ceremony to be perfect. They were worried that the weather
could affect the fireworks effect and they made a video beforehand in order
to assure the quality. That is understandable too. But the
organizers did not announce the details beforehand and the world knew
nothing. After the "successful" performance, the media reported the
truth and the deceptive nature of the process became obvious.

Next, the world wanted to see what actually happened at the opening
ceremonies and not some computer or video production that was made
beforehand. If the pre-recorded video of the firework footprints is
acceptable, then every scene of the opening ceremony can in theory be
pre-recorded and shown by pressing a button at the right moment.

We believe that no one will accept a pre-recorded Olympic opening
ceremony. Therefore, the deceptive 3D electronic firework footprints
constitute a huge flaw in these Olympics and leaves behind an indelible
blemish. An imperfect reality is surely better than a perfect forgery.
If the technical problems of the live broadcast cannot be overcome, then
either this concept of the footprints of history should be given up or else
the possibility of things going wrong during the live broadcast must be
accepted. Instead, the wise people in charge of production chose
"fakery" to solve this problem. This is very regrettable.

The second piece is the song <Ode to the Motherland> sung by the little
girl. On that evening, a 9-year-old girl named Lin Miaoke in red dress
was "lip-synching" on stage. That young, sincere and touching voice
was not a pre-recorded song sung by Lin Miaoke. Instead, it belonged a
7-year-old girl named Yang Pei-yi. The background and lyrics of the
song <Ode to the Motherland> bear a special meaning for contemporary Chinese
people. On that evening, the performance of Lin Miaoke and the
heavenly and pure singing captivated the hearts of the vast majority of the
Chinese people. The other 3 billion viewers around the world are
probably deeply moved as well.

In an interview, the Olympic opening ceremony music director Chen Qigang
said that this amazing song was not sung by the "smiling angel" Lin Miaoke
and the voice belonged to Yang Peiyi instead. Chen Qigang said that
Yang Peiyi was dropped because of the her appearance and because of national
interests as a result of a decision made by a member of the Politburo.
Ouch! What kind of country would handle this matter in such an idiotic
way? This is just unbelievable.

First of all, the "lip-synching" by Lin Miaoke is marginally acceptable,
because the live performances of many superstars also have similar
preparations for emergency situations. But it is wrong for Lin Miaoke
to perform on stage while the voice is not hers. Unless this was
announced beforehand, this is deceptive.

Secondly, there are many lovely children in China. Why choose Lin's
looks and Yang's voice? Is it so hard to find a child who can both
perform and sing? I believe the majority of the Chinese people
disapprove of this.

"In consideration of international image and national interests" was the
reason for discarding Yang Peiyi. Such a decision is frankly
infuriating. Many people who have seen the photo of Yang Peiyi thought
that she was lovely, and she would win applause if she dressed up on stage.
Why are the organizers demeaning Yang Peiyi? How does Yang Peiyi hurt
the international image? How are national interests being hurt?
I think that the relevant people should apologize to Yang Peiyi and her
family, and to the people of China. Those words were verbal violence
that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.

Overseas media report described the firework footprints in terms of
"fakery." Mainland netizens said that Lin Miaoke "lip-synched," Yang
Peiyi was debased and the matter was called the 'fake singing affair."
Many unfriendly people said that China is a "grand nation for fakery" since
contrabands made in China can be found everywhere in the world. The
Olympics is a mega-event that draws wide attention. The organizers
have now been found to have "motive, method and purpose" in making politics
override all else. This is truly damaging to the international image
and national interests.

Fakery is not a traditional virtue of the Chinese people, and it also
runs against the Olympic spirit. Even athletes and judges take the
oath not to take drugs, not to cheat and to deal with matters in a fair
manner. But in the opening ceremony that is supposed to embody the
Olympic spirit, there was fake videos and singing. This is no way to
use the hosting of the Olympics to rise up with the rest of the world.
Many Chinese people are excited and touched when they see the Chinese
athletes train hard, suffer injuries and then win medals in the arena.
We sincerely hope that the the extraordinary achievements of these athletes
will win international respect and not be affected by the incomprehensible
actions taken by the organizers.

24-year-old Guo Wenjun from Shaanxi province won an Olympic gold medal in
the 10-meter air pistol competition. Afterwards, she disclosed a
heartbreaking personal story during an interview. Her father had
vanished ten years ago, for which she felt a lot of pain. This story
was rapidly propagated across the major Internet forums. Yesterday,
our reporter found that Chinese netizens have set off the vaunted "human
flesh search engines" at Tianya, MOP and other forums to help Guo Wenjun
located her father.

At MOP, the post titled <Start human flesh search on behalf of Olympic
champion; Guo Wenjun's father disappeared ten years ago!> appeared at
11:47am on August 11 and it has already drew comments from more than 100
netizens. At Sina.com, the post <Let us use human flesh search to help
Guo Wenjun find her father who has been missing for ten years!> had more
than 600,000 page views and more than 1,000 comments.

At the same time that the human flesh search engines started, others are
concerned about the possible invasion of the privacy of Guo Wenjun and her
family. "If this happens, it would be a bad result from good
intentions."

One netizen said that they will try to protect the privacy of Guo Wenjun
and her family as much as possible. They will try not to publish the
private information on the Internet, and use email and QQ groups instead to
communicate among themselves.

While the Chinese people were celebrating the advancement of the Chinese
women's gymnastics team advancing into the finals with the highest points
total, Reuters (UK) must have been dreaming when they reported that "Hosts
China fail to qualify for final."

The full text was:

China, one of the favourites for the gold medal, failed to qualify for
the women’s gymnastics team final at the Olympics on Sunday.

The 2006 world champions were expected to battle it out with the United
States for the top prize but a series of errors meant they failed to reach
Wednesday’s final.

How come I look around and I see that basically everybody dislikes the
motherland and the Party?
When they speak, it is about democracy ...
When they speak, it is about how the state is causing them to earn low
incomes ....

But I feel that my life is just fine. I have several hundreds of
classmates and friends, and I don't know any of them ending up as a beggar
in spite of working hard ...

I don't know whether these complainers refuse to work, and sit home or
hang around Internet cafes instead ... in any case, they just complain
non-stop ...

Actually, there are poor people in every nation of the world ... that is
true in the United States, Europe or Middle East ... if you don't work, you
get poor ...

There are no perfect political parties in the world. The parties in
the United States serve the interests of the big corporations and bosses ...
our Party serve the interests of the top leaders and their families ... the
bottom line is that they are the same ... they all represent only the
interests of a small fraction of people ... I think that everybody can see
that ...

Back to reality ... our livelihood has clearly improved over the past
several years ... many people have bought cars and apartments, and they can
even travel overseas for vacation ... in the 1990's, many people cannot
imagine ever buying a car or an apartment ...

If you have some ability, if you are not lazy and you have a normal state
of mind, you can basically make a relatively decent job and living ... but
if you only know how to get on the Internet, play cards, drink alcohol and
chat, you will be impoverished in any country of the world ... do not
believe that when foreigners live a good life, it means that their country
provides them with everything for free ... foreigners also have to work hard
in order to live well ... the goodies do not fall from the sky ... and there
can't be goodies lying around everywhere in a country ...

Right now people in China basically have steady electricity supply,
convenient transportation, abundant food, no obvious hostile foreign
enemies, continuously developing industry and commerce, a steady RMB
currency that has not depreciated drastically ... that is not an
exaggeration ...

Even though we are accustomed to all of the above, if you spend the time
to study other countries, you will find that only a dozen countries around
the world can do that ... and our China is definitely within the top ten ...

Dissatisfied people should try to shut down their computers and take a
look around to see how their local folks are doing ... then you can come
back and continue your solo diatribe against our nation and our Party ...

From the first day that I came to the Tianya Forum, I have felt that this
is the world of lost and bitter people ... netizens with normal psychology
only come here to silently watch the freak show ... I used to think that the
MOP Forum is superficial ... now I think that the Tianya Miscellaneous Chat
Forum is pitiful ...

[006] Hong Kong By The
Numbers (08/12/2008) Two surveys and different results ...

Last night checkpoints sealed off the road to the police headquarters
where attackers detonated a wagon filled with explosives at 2.30am, killing
a civilian guard and injuring two police. According to the Xinhua news
agency, the police fired back, killing one of the attackers and capturing
two after a fourth killed himself with his bomb. Half an hour earlier, an
explosion blew out windows in a row of businesses. The owner of one café,
where people were drinking at the time of the explosion, said: “Suddenly
there was a big bang. The customers and I just ran away. When I looked back,
my shop was totally destroyed.”

At 8.30am, police cornered five of the alleged attackers under a market
stall. Two were shot dead as they threw their bombs while the other three
blew themselves up. There were also attacks on a local government building
and the premises of a trade organisation. A curfew was imposed and
businesses in Kuqa county were ordered to close as police hunted for
attackers, who, said Xinhua, had used bombs made from pipes, gas canisters
and containers of liquid gas.

...

A teenage girl and a woman were among the suicide bombers responsible for
Sunday’s attacks on a police station, government offices and shops in the
predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang, in northwestern China, officials
said yesterday. A 15-year-old girl, identified as Hailiqiemu Abulizi, was
injured when a home-made bomb exploded prematurely. She was said to be in a
stable condition after undergoing surgery for injuries including a broken
leg and foot. Another woman, who has not been identified by the authorities,
died after setting off a bomb that she was carrying when she and four other
attackers were cornered in a bazaar in the oasis town of Kuqa.

If there is too much details to read, here is the illustration version in
Apple Daily:

Meanwhile, TVB's animated cartoon is here (note: the voice-over is in
Cantonese but you can watch the video without needing to listen):

[004] Do Not Turn The
Beijing Olympics Into A Copy Of The Nazi Olympics (08/11/2008)
(Tsai Ing-wen, Chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, in
China Times)

[in translation]

On August 1, 1935, Adolf Hitler presided over the opening ceremony of the
Berlin Olympics and nationalistic fervor reached an acme among the German
people. Since losing the First World War, the Germany people had never
enjoyed such glory. In spite of numerous objections internationally,
the Olympic Organizing Committee decided to award this most important
international sports meet to Adolf Hitler's Germany. The supporters of
the German cause argued that the status of Olympic host country will make
Germany more democratic, free and peaceful.

The militarily belligerent Adolf Hitler indeed turned peaceful.
During the Olympic period, the Nazis removed the prejudicial slogans and
banners that banned Jews. Hitler wanted people to think that Germany
was the best friend of the world. But history would show later that
Hitler told a huge lie. While the Olympics were going on, Hitler was
promoting peace on one hand and building concentration camps on the other
hand. After the Olympics was over, Germany did not become more
democratic and free. At the Wannseekonferenz, the "Final Solution of
the Jewish Problem" was decided upon, and the Hitler regime went on to
massacre several million Jews.

Nobody knows if there was a direct relationship between the Olympics and
the Holocaust. But if the entire Nazi regime was founded upon a
powerful nationalism, then the 1936 Berlin Olympics no doubt gave German
nationalism a strong shot in the arm. Seventy-two years later on
August 8, 2008, we once again saw the Olympics being hosted in a nation
without human rights. The Chinese leader Hu Jintao pushed Chinese
nationalism to an acme in the open ceremony à la
Zhang Yimou. On television, the excited emotions of the Chinese people
were exactly the same as those of the Germans in 1936.

In order to for the Olympics to go smoothly, the Chinese government began
a courtesy campaign early on to let the world see that China is becoming
more civilized. As opening day neared, the whole country went on
alert. Protestors in Tibet and Xinjiang were put under surveillance,
arrested and even murdered. Of course, these actions could not be made
known to the Chinese people. The excited citizens of Beijing could not
discern the high degree of alert. Around the Bird's Nest, there are
armed police officers every five steps. The taxis are reportedly
equipped with microphone monitors. The shops around the stadium are
given the sacred duty of reporting to the police. Windows were ordered
shut in tall buildings. At Tiananmen Square, it is not clear whether
there are more undercover police or tourists. This is the inevitable
result when a totalitarian government organizes the peaceful Olympics.
As a nation with such a poor human rights record, China had to mobilize the
entire national apparatus to destroy all opposing forces. In other
words, this was a festival held under martial law. The nationwide
celebration inside the stadium and the grim atmosphere outside provide a
very acute and ironic contrast.

But from another angle, there are some countries in the world that cannot
watch the exciting sports events of the Olympics in a relaxed manner in the
comfort of their living rooms. Regrettably, Taiwan is such a country.
We are not able to appear in the Olympics under the name of Taiwan.
Our athletes have neither country flag nor title. During the opening
ceremony, China changed the traditioanl order of entry of the countries and
used the Chinese system instead. Thus, the team from Taiwan appeared
under Zhong and "in the company" of Macau and Hong Kong. Later
on, the whole world saw the important figures of our ruling political party
sat, observed and took part in this historical change from the stands.
They did not feel that there was anything inappropriate and they were
treated as honored guests by the other side. Even when the Beijing
government said that the Taiwan athletes have "home court advantage" in the
mainland, they did not feel anything was wrong and in fact they thought that
this was only natural.

There is a saying around the world that politics should not enter sports,
which is without borders. But from the various actions of China
against Taiwan during the Beijing Olympics, politics has never been farther
away from sports. The success of the Berlin Olympics made Hitler even
more dictatorial and brutal afterwards. This reminded me of the
protest action organized by human rights organizations on Liberty Plaza on
the evening of Lovers' Day. Compared to the grandiose Olympics opening
ceremony, the number of persons present there was small. I was not
surprised as I sat among the relatively small crowd. After all, the
Olympics had the attention of everybody and it was like pouring cold water
to talk about human rights and democracy. We cannot deny that China
has ulterior purposes with respect to the Olympics. But we wish that
China would pay more attention to human rights. The greatest duty of
China towards the world is not a successful Olympics, but the respect and
protection of human rights.

I am not against the Olympics. I don't oppose Taiwan participating
and I cheer warmly for the athletes. But most of all I wish that
someday the representatives from Taiwan can say out the name on their
country during the award ceremony. All our citizens should think
whether this dream of Taiwan is getting more and more remote after the
Beijing Olympics?

(Associated
Press) Small pro-Tibet protest pulled off in Tiananmen. By
Audra Ang.

Pro-Tibet activists wrapped themselves in Tibetan flags and lay down in
Tiananmen Square on Saturday, their group said, in a protest that breached
heavy security surrounding the heart of Beijing for the Olympic Games.

The five demonstrators were calling for an "end to the Chinese
government's occupation in Tibet," said Lhadon Tethong, executive director
of the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet.

John Hocevar, a member of the group who videotaped the protest, said the
activists were led away by men who appeared to be plainclothes security
agents. He said he did not know where they were taken.

...

Tethong said four of Saturday's protesters wrapped themselves in the
Tibetan national snow lion flag, which is banned in China, and lay down in
the south section of the square. The famous portrait of Mao Zedong —
communist China's founding leaders — overlooks that section of the square.

The fifth stood by as the others were on the ground and told passers-by
why they were protesting, she said.

The Chinese Internet reaction is puzzlement in several directions.
Firstly, who was this action directed towards? At TSQ, most of the
Chinese spectators have no idea what these people were up to, because
everything is in English. So the whole exercise was a videotape
session. But for whom? It is for a western audience, but the
comments on the YouTube videos were overwhelmingly negative with nary a
discussion about serious issues. Secondly, at the overseas Chinese
forums, people wondered why the Chinese citizens did not take the matter
into their own hands and beat these people up. In the second video,
that almost happened as it was the undercover security officers who had to
shepherd the protestors out. Thirdly, what is the news value of this
story that results in an Associated Press? That is for the press to
explain ...

(New
York Times) A Stabbing Rooted in Loss and Despair. By
Andrew Jacobs. August 10, 2008.

Tang Yongming was like countless other middle-aged, marginally skilled
men struggling to find their way in the new China. Laid off from a meter
factory in the central city of Hangzhou, Mr. Tang, 47, found himself idle,
broke and living alone in a rented room with no furniture and no future.

Friends and former co-workers said he had become angry and unmoored as he
watched China’s surging economy roar ahead without him.

But even though Mr. Tang had moments of despair and frustration, those
who knew him were at a loss to explain why he attacked a couple of American
tourists and their Chinese guide on Saturday, fatally stabbing a 62-year-old
man and slashing the others before leaping to his death from the balcony of
the Drum Tower, one of Beijing’s best-known historic monuments.

Todd Bachman, a Minnesota businessman whose son-in-law coaches the men’s
volleyball team, was killed. His wife, Barbara, 62, was critically wounded,
as was the guide, whose name has not been released.

...

The killing has provoked hand-wringing and debate on the Internet. Some
people fretted that it could tarnish China’s moment of Olympic glory, while
others used Mr. Tang’s murderous outburst to rail against a variety of
unattended social ills: mental illness, chronic unemployment among laid-off
state workers and the rise of xenophobic nationalism.

One widely circulated posting, written anonymously on a popular Web site,
seemed to capture the prevailing worry that Mr. Tang’s crime would harm
China’s image: “Your actions have hurt not just two Americans, but they have
hurt the way Americans will view China during the Games, the way all the
people of the world will view China. The bright dream of these momentous
Olympics has been darkened by you.”

Much of the debate and the supposition about his motives have been
swirling in a vacuum of substantial information. Mr. Tang was unemployed and
arrived in Beijing on Aug. 1 for reasons that remain unclear. The only thing
he left behind, investigators said, was the government-issued identification
card in his pocket.

The Chinese police have painted him as a man turned desperate by personal
shortcomings. “He had lost all hope after a series of failures in his life
and took his anger out on society,” the police said, according to Xinhua,
the state news agency.

Mr. Tang had no criminal record, investigators said, nor was he among the
crowds of aggrieved citizens, so-called petitioners, who flock to the
capital to file official appeals to the central government.

On the outskirts of Hangzhou, where Mr. Tang spent most of his life,
neighbors and former co-workers said he was often disgruntled and prone to
argument. “He grumbled a great deal, very cynical,” Zhang Liping, a former
colleague, said. “He had an unyielding mouth.”

They agreed that Mr. Tang typified the many working men cast aside by
ailing state-run industries. He was angry at being left behind by China’s
headlong rush into an economy that lacked the succors of the socialist past.
“He had a quick temper and was always complaining about society,” said a
former co-worker, who would only give his nickname, Aqing.

Mr. Tang worked as a metal presser at the Hangzhou Meter Factory for more
than two decades. When a private company bought the plant five or six years
ago, his job was transferred elsewhere and Mr. Tang was demoted to guard at
the factory gate. In 2004, colleagues said, he lost that job for reasons
that were not clear.

In 2006, his wife, who also worked at the meter factory, divorced him.
Mr. Tang sold his house and rented a room nearby in Hengjie, a once-rural
town that has become absorbed into Hangzhou’s industrial sprawl. Xinhua,
quoting the police, said Mr. Tang’s 21-year-old son spent the money from the
sale of the home. Last year the son was arrested for fraud and later
received a six-month sentence for burglary.

Jiang Beigen, his landlord, said Mr. Tang paid $53 a month for an
unfurnished room. According to Mr. Jiang and other tenants, Mr. Tang seemed
to own only one shirt and a single pair of pants, both of which he washed by
hand at night. He had no job, they said, and often slept late into the day.

Last week, Mr. Tang announced he was leaving town. According to the
police, he called his son that evening and told him he would not be
returning until he found success.

(Boxun)
Ai Weiwei: My mailbox received the death note of the assassin Tang Yongming.
August 10, 2008. (Note: This was an email sent to Boxun by someone who
calls himself "Ai Weiwei." For the background on the real Ai Weiwei, see
this
Guardian story of Jonathan Watts and
Ai Weiwei's own statement about why he will not attend the Olympics
opening ceremony).

(in translation)

[Note to the media: There is no proof that such a death note actually
exists. Boxun is publishing this under the section "public viewpoints"
and not as "news."]

In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and rumors, I am leaving
<My Last Words> to the world.

I undertook this extreme act not out of cruelty and madness, but I want
to use extreme action to remind the world about the paind of the people who
live under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

Please forgive my method. The amount of pain that the Beijing
authorities inflicted in order to hold the Olympics far exceeds that in the
tragedy that will occur tomorrow. The Beijing Olympics has destroyed
the lives of many people! Everybody can see the crimes of corrupt
government officials!

We hold no malice against the world. We love the peoples of the
world. Our action is an "performance art" that expresses the pain of
live. Although this act is art, it is written with blood!

This newspaper called Ai Weiwei yesterday. He said that he did not
know Tang Yongming and he only read about the death note on the Internet.
He thought that this was a piece of sensationalism on the Internet.
But Ai Weiwei wrote about Tang Yongming on his own blog: "People will ask
whether society has become safer with several hundreds of thousands of
security guards. On the contrary, society has become less harmonious
because the absence of protests and dissident voices means that the
possibility of communication has been lost due to the violence of 'harmonisation'."

[001] The Video That
Should Have Been An Internet Hit ... (08/11/2008) ... but it isn't
because copyrights are strictly enforced on all Beijing Olympics official
videos. At issue is the soccer between China and Belgium, when Chinese
player Tan Wangsong deliberately kicked the opponent in the groin and was given
a red card (=expulsion from the match and a suspension from future matches).
Here is a fuzzy screen capture. The Chinese team had fallen behind and the
expulsion of Tan Wangsong in the 52nd of the minute made sure that there will be
no chance to gain points for the undermanned team.

There is a still photograph afterwards.

(Titan24) When reached by the press after midnight, Tan Wangsong
said: "I was too impatient on that play. At the time, we were attacking
hard but we did not get any good chances. Everybody was getting worried.
At the moment, I was pretty calm and I was not losing my mind. But I was
impatient on that defensive play. At the time, I only wanted to reach
the ball but the opposite player pushed the ball to the side. But my
body had already left the ground and I could not change directions. So I
went straight at him. I could not pull myself back. I did not
deliberately kick him and I did not push my foot down hard. But the
momentum was too big and I kicked him. I knew that this was a strong
move and I immediately apologized. But it was too late."

At the 64th minute, team captain Zheng Zhi elbowed a Belgian player and was
given a red card (=expulsion from the match). No videos can be found
online so far.

Explanation: The Internet videos (谭望嵩飞踹对手被罚下场
and 郑智报复对手红牌离场) are
available inside mainland China, but not to anyone outside. This is the
Great Firewall of China in reverse!

Addendum: The following action photos of Tan Wangsong have been
published: